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Full-Text Articles in Engineering Science and Materials

Semantic Image Retrieval Using Relevance Feedback And Transaction Logs, Amin Shah-Hosseini Jan 2007

Semantic Image Retrieval Using Relevance Feedback And Transaction Logs, Amin Shah-Hosseini

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Due to the recent improvements in digital photography and storage capacity, storing large amounts of images has been made possible, and efficient means to retrieve images matching a user’s query are needed. Content-based Image Retrieval (CBIR) systems automatically extract image contents based on image features, i.e. color, texture, and shape. Relevance feedback methods are applied to CBIR to integrate users’ perceptions and reduce the gap between high-level image semantics and low-level image features. The precision of a CBIR system in retrieving semantically rich (complex) images is improved in this dissertation work by making advancements in three areas of a CBIR …


Factors That Influence Visual Attention And Their Effects On Safety In Driving: An Eye Movement Tracking Approach, Larry Bargola Nabatilan Jan 2007

Factors That Influence Visual Attention And Their Effects On Safety In Driving: An Eye Movement Tracking Approach, Larry Bargola Nabatilan

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Statistics show that a high percentage of road related accidents are due to factors that cause impaired driving. Since information extraction in driving is predominantly a visual task, visual distraction and its implications are therefore important safety issues. The main objective of this research is to study some of the implications of demands to human’s attention and perception and how it affects performance of tasks such as driving. Specifically, the study aims to determine the changes that occur in the visual behavior of drivers with different levels of driving experience by tracking the movement of the eye; examine the effects …


Engineering A Photo-Control Mechanism For Rna Interference, Richard Andrew Blidner Jan 2007

Engineering A Photo-Control Mechanism For Rna Interference, Richard Andrew Blidner

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

RNA interference (RNAi) is a phenomenon in which RNA molecules elicit potent and sequence-specific post-transcriptional gene silencing. Nucleic acid chemical modifications have been incorporated to improve their pharmacological properties. Despite numerous developments in chemical modifications for increased stability, safety, and efficiency of these therapeutic agents, they still face challenges of spatial and temporal targeting. One potential targeting strategy uses photocaging techniques, which involves the covalent attachment of photolabile compounds to the effector NA species that blocks bioactivity until exposed to near UV-light. This work demonstrates that fully-2’-fluorinated nucleic acids (FNAs) can elicit RNAi and that these effectors are resistant to …


Aconitic Acid From Sugarcane: Production And Industrial Application, Nicolas Javier Gil Zapata Jan 2007

Aconitic Acid From Sugarcane: Production And Industrial Application, Nicolas Javier Gil Zapata

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Trans aconitic acid (TAA) is the predominant organic acid in cane leaf matter (CLM) juice. Its concentration is three to six times higher than the level found in sugarcane stalks. The variation of composition in terms of total fermentable sugars (TFS), anions, and cations of the LCP85-384 sugarcane variety during 2003-2006 seasons, as well as the ripener (Polado-L®) effect were analyzed. TAA content ranged between 2.1-3.1 kg / t CLM. The TFS in CLM juice yielded a fermentation efficiency of 92%, four points lower than with sugar molasses. Liquid-liquid extraction (LLE), solid-liquid extraction and ion exchange were evaluated for the …


Effect Of Hole Configurations On Film Cooling From Cylindrical Inclined Holes For The Application To Gas Turbine Blades, Yiping Lu Jan 2007

Effect Of Hole Configurations On Film Cooling From Cylindrical Inclined Holes For The Application To Gas Turbine Blades, Yiping Lu

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Film cooling is one of the cooling systems investigated for the application to gas turbine blades. Gas turbines use film cooling in addition to turbulated internal cooling to protect the blades outer surface from hot gases. The present study concentrates on the experimental and numerical investigation of film cooling performance for a row of cylindrical holes in a modern turbine blade. The adiabatic film effectiveness and the heat transfer coefficient are determined experimentally on a flat plate downstream of a row of inclined different geometries hole exit by using a single test transient IR thermography technique. The focus of this …


Optimal Control Of Production And Distribution In A Supply Chain System Operating Under A Jit Delivery Policy, Pablo Biswas Jan 2007

Optimal Control Of Production And Distribution In A Supply Chain System Operating Under A Jit Delivery Policy, Pablo Biswas

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This research deals with a supply chain system where the production or manufacturing facility operates under a just-in-time (JIT) environment, and the facility consists of raw material suppliers, manufacturers, and retailers where inventory of raw materials, work-in-process, and finished goods are involved, respectively. This work considers that the production of finished goods in one cycle starts just after the production or uptime in preceding cycle to minimize the idle time of the facility. Considering this scenario, inventory models are developed for different delivery situations: (a) perfect matching condition where no finished good remains after the shipments and (b) imperfect matching …


Electrodeposition Of Multilayered Nanostructures For Giant Magnetoresistance And Thermoelectric Applications, Despina Davis Jan 2007

Electrodeposition Of Multilayered Nanostructures For Giant Magnetoresistance And Thermoelectric Applications, Despina Davis

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The electrodeposition of novel materials such as multilayer nanotubes for giant magneto resistance (GMR) applications and bismuth telluride nanotubes for thermoelectric applications are presented in this dissertation. The motivation for the multilayer electrodeposition is the investigation of giant magnetoresistance (GMR), a change in the material resistance in an applied magnetic field as a consequence of antiferromagnetic coupling. The nanowire high aspect ratio geometry allows the measurement of GMR with the current applied perpendicular to the plane (CPP) of the multilayers, which has been theoretically identified as being larger than the GMR in the (CIP) configuration (current in plane of multilayers). …