Quarterman embraces changing role on team, page 3 Opinion: School should let students have stun guns in Res Halls, page 5 lsunow.com/daily
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 27, 2016
thedailyreveille
@lsureveille
Volume 121 · No. 10
thedailyreveille
BATON ROUGE COMMUNITY
CATHERINE SEDDON / The Daily Reveille
Local traffic among worst for mid-sized cities BY SAM KARLIN @samkarlin_TDR
management and shipping industries, Hansen said she found her passion in helping animals. Despite holding undergraduate degrees in music and molecular biology, but it took her a while to marry work and pleasure. “Life throws some curve balls at you and you have to either figure out how to duck or
Baton Rouge traffic, a topic of discussion as common as the weather and Tiger football in the Capital City, may deserve all the blasphemy bestowed upon it by irritated motorists stuck on I-10 during rush hour each day. Congestion in Baton Rouge, according to some national indicators, is among the very worst in the country when comparing similar-sized areas. Baton Rouge ranks 3rd in the country for most congested, “medium” sized city in the country, according to the Texas Transportation Institute’s Mobility Report. INRIX, a company that releases national scorecards on the traffic woes of various cities, also put Baton Rouge at third worst among “medium/average areas” in 2015. The report said congestion costs each commuter in Baton Rouge $1,262 per year, compared to the national average of $870. University civil and environmental engineer Laurence Lambert, who studies traffic, said in an email that a lack of planning 60 years ago in Baton Rouge led to the plight. Downtown and Mid-City, constructed before the interstate,
see PROSTHETIC, page 7
see TRAFFIC, page 7
A LEG UP Graduate student develops prosthetics for disabled animals BY CAITIE BURKES | @caitie1221 Bob, a hound mix, crosses his paws — one a chocolate brown foot of fur, the other a homemade socket prosthetic made of fiberglass, resin and a dollar store bouncy ball. The makeshift front leg has helped the former shelter dog since 2013, when he wobbled his way into Niki Marie Hansen’s life. After the rescue, one of Hansen’s friends asked for her assistance in
securing an amputation and crafting a fitted socket prosthetic. The friend ran an animal shelter. Hansen, a graduate student, focuses much of her research on implanted prosthetics for horses, but she has also engineered traditional socket prosthetics for dogs, goats and a cow. Though she previously shuffled between jobs in car sales, retail
RESEARCH
Student raises quail, researches their nutrition habits BY KATIE GAGLIANO @katie_gagliano
Ariel Bergeron understands chicks. The poultry science senior has raised approximately 2,700 bobwhite quail over three years of undergraduate research. Existing research on the quail industry is over 40 years old, Bergeron said. Data is no longer viable after five years, and her study is shedding light on quail nutrition, a topic important to the growing quail industry in the United States. Theresia Lavergne, professor and poultry extension
specialist, has mentored Bergeron throughout her college career. The two met at Bergeron’s high school 4-H competitions and Lavergne encouraged Bergeron to pursue poultry science at the University. Bergeron’s research has the quality of graduate level work despite her undergraduate status, Lavergne said. “Her research is unique,” Lavergne said. “There’s very limited nutrition-related research on bobwhite quail throughout the country and the world. Genetics change over time and nutrient requirements can change.”
The quail industry brings in $5 billion to the U.S. economy and the industry is growing in Louisiana as quail become more popular on hunt and release preserves, Bergeron said. When developing the research topic, Bergeron and Lavergne noticed quail are not as prevalent in their natural habitat and the need to raise quail commercially is growing. “If you’re going to have to start raising them in commercial settings they’re going to have to have a specific nutrient requirement,” Bergeron said. Bergeron’s research trials sought to determine proper care procedures and lysine
requirements for quail zero to 28 days old. Lysine is an essential amino acid that helps poultry break down food and develop protein. When lysine levels are deficient quail will not yield as much meat for sale, Bergeron said. She tested the lysine requirements by varying lysine levels in the quail’s corn and soy bean based diet. She then weighed the quail every seven days in small groups to determine if proper weight gain was occurring. At birth, bobwhite quail weigh an average of six grams.
see QUAIL, page 7
photo courtesy of ARIEL BERGERON
Poultry science senior Ariel Bergeron raises quail as part of research project.