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Full-Text Articles in Physical Sciences and Mathematics

Contractional Tectonics: Investigations Of Ongoing Construction Of The Himalaya Fold-Thrust Belt And The Trishear Model Of Fault-Propagation Folding, Hongjiao Yu Jan 2014

Contractional Tectonics: Investigations Of Ongoing Construction Of The Himalaya Fold-Thrust Belt And The Trishear Model Of Fault-Propagation Folding, Hongjiao Yu

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation focuses on the kinematic evolution of contractional tectonics: the Himalayan fold-thrust belt along the collisional orogenic belts, and growth of the basement-cored monoclines in Colorado Plateau. Ongoing Himalayan growth is generally thought to be dominated by duplexing and/or extrusion processes. Duplexing models highlight accretion of material from the subducting plate to the over-riding orogenic wedge, whereas extrusion models focus on up-dip translation of a block bounded by out-of-sequence faults. Here, a primary outstanding question involves the uncertain relationship of the Berinag thrust and the Tons thrust, structures with displacements of >80 km and >40 km, respectively. The uncertainty …


Sign Learning Kink Based Quantum Monte Carlo Applied To Multiple Large Systems H2O, N2, F2, Xiaoyao Ma Jan 2014

Sign Learning Kink Based Quantum Monte Carlo Applied To Multiple Large Systems H2O, N2, F2, Xiaoyao Ma

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

A Sign Learning Kink (SiLK) based Quantum Monte Carlo (QMC) method is used to calculate the ground state energies for H2O, N2 and F2 molecules. This method has two stages. The first (learning stage) reduces the minus sign problem by optimizing the states which are used in the second (QMC stage). I test the method in Single, Double excitations (SD), Single, Double, and Triple excitations (SDT), and Full Configuration Interaction (FCI) vector spaces. I also perform exact diagonalization in those vector spaces as a benchmark. In each vector space and for each molecule, I perform SiLK …


Methods For The Characterization Of Deep-Sea Benthic Megafauna In The Vicinity Of The Deepwater Horizon Macondo Well, Stephanie Marie Sharuga Jan 2014

Methods For The Characterization Of Deep-Sea Benthic Megafauna In The Vicinity Of The Deepwater Horizon Macondo Well, Stephanie Marie Sharuga

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Soft-sediment benthic environments are amongst the largest marine ecosystems in the world and play important roles in many ecosystem functions. In recent years, exploitation of resources and unintentional impacts on deep-sea benthic environments has increased. The Deepwater Horizon oil spill of 2010 in the northern Gulf of Mexico (GoM) represented a prime example of this. The oil spill not only highlighted deficiencies of data and information on baseline conditions, but also represented an opportunity to learn more and develop better methods for the future. Deep-sea imaging platforms such as autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) and remotely operated vehicles (ROVs) have been …


Evolving Time Surfaces And Tracking Mixing Indicators For Flow Visualization, Farid Harhad Jan 2014

Evolving Time Surfaces And Tracking Mixing Indicators For Flow Visualization, Farid Harhad

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The complexity of large scale computational fluid dynamic simulations (CFD) demands powerful tools to investigate the numerical results. To analyze and understand these voluminous results, we need to visualize the 3D flow field. We chose to use a visualization technique called Time Surfaces. A time surface is a set of surfaces swept by an initial seed surface for a given number of timesteps. We use a front tracking approach where the points of an in initial surface are advanced in a Lagrangian fashion. To maintain a smooth time surface, our method requires surface refinement operations that either split triangle edges, …


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 …


Performance Of Active Vibration Isolation In The Advanced Ligo Detectors, Ryan Thomas Derosa Jan 2014

Performance Of Active Vibration Isolation In The Advanced Ligo Detectors, Ryan Thomas Derosa

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The second generation of LIGO detectors has finished construction and the commissioning effort is pushing the instruments towards their designed sensitivity. Around the world similar undertakings are underway, and soon a global network capable of astrophysical observation will be operational. The first sentences are being written in an important chapter of terrestrial gravitational wave detection, an entire century after the theoretical foundations of general relativity were laid, and after decades of calculation, design, proposals, plans, and laboratory work. In order to make sensitive measurements, the detector must be well isolated from the vibrations of the ground, and much of this …


Syntheses And Characterization Of Isoporphyrins And Bodipys For Pdt And Imaging, Haijun Wang Jan 2014

Syntheses And Characterization Of Isoporphyrins And Bodipys For Pdt And Imaging, Haijun Wang

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This Dissertation is divided into five chapters reporting various aspects of the background to my field of study and the results obtained during my research program. Chapter 1 gives a very brief introduction to photodynamic therapy including the mechanism of the treatment, the localization of photosensitizer in tumor cells, the pathways leading to tumor death and characteristics of various photosensitizers such as porphyrin-based photosensitizers and non-porphyrin based photosensitizers. Chapter 2 reports a total synthesis of zinc(II) isoporphyrins by cyclization of b-bilene salt using á-keto esters for the macrocyclization carbon. Functionalization of the resulting zinc(II) isoporphyrins was attempted using different strategies …


A Persistent Storage Model For Extreme Computing, Shuangyang Yang Jan 2014

A Persistent Storage Model For Extreme Computing, Shuangyang Yang

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The continuing technological progress resulted in a dramatic growth in aggregate computational performance of the largest supercomputing systems. Unfortunately, these advances did not translate to the required extent into accompanying I/O systems and little more in terms of architecture or effective access latency. New classes of algorithms developed for massively parallel applications, that gracefully handle the challenges of asynchrony, heavily multi-threaded distributed codes, and message-driven computation, must be matched by similar advances in I/O methods and algorithms to produce a well performing and balanced supercomputing system. This dissertation proposes PXFS, a storage model for persistent objects inspired by the ParalleX …


Untangling Earth System Responses Recorded In Sulfate's Sulfur And Oxygen Isotopes At The Dawn Of Multicellular Life And Today, Bryan Alan Killingsworth Jan 2014

Untangling Earth System Responses Recorded In Sulfate's Sulfur And Oxygen Isotopes At The Dawn Of Multicellular Life And Today, Bryan Alan Killingsworth

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Major Earth system perturbations in the deep past and today are recorded in sulfate sulfur and oxygen isotopes, as examined here in three cases. (1) Sedimentary sulfate record of the “Marinoan Oxygen-17 Depletion” (MOSD) event, implies ultra-high CO2 atmosphere at ~635 Ma after global glaciation. MOSD duration is constrained by correlating its most complete record to radiometric dates. Barium sulfate layers in South China sediments show the MOSD in lower layers but persistently absent up section. Carbon-13 correlation locates the MOSD within dated intervals from other sites, yielding a 0 - 0.99 Myr duration. Thus, sedimentary constraint on this non-steady-state …


Microfluidic And Nanofluidic Devices - Mixed Scale Systems For Bioanalytical Applications, Michael David Vincent Jan 2014

Microfluidic And Nanofluidic Devices - Mixed Scale Systems For Bioanalytical Applications, Michael David Vincent

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Developments in the field of microfluidics and nanofluidics allow an experimenter to employ new analytical techniques. One direction in which the field is moving towards is developing new devices and or instruments on the smallest scale possible. One way in which this can be achieved is by using a combination of top-down and bottom-up technologies. Some of these top-down techniques have been used in other fields such as the use of photolithography to fabricate semiconductors. Photolithography is a top-down method used to create features normally on the micrometer scale, but in order to create nanometer size features another top-down method …


Combinatorial Minimal Free Resolutions Of Ideals With Monomial And Binomial Generators, Trevor Mcguire Jan 2014

Combinatorial Minimal Free Resolutions Of Ideals With Monomial And Binomial Generators, Trevor Mcguire

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

In recent years, the combinatorial properties of monomials ideals and binomial ideals have been widely studied. In particular, combinatorial interpretations of minimal free resolutions have been given in both cases. In this present work, we will generalize existing techniques to obtain two new results. If Lambda is an integer lattice in the n-dimensional integers satisfying some mild conditions, S is the polynomial ring with n variables and R is the group algebra of S[Lambda], then the first result is resolutions of Lambda-invariant submodules of the Laurent polynomial ring in n variables as R-modules. A consequence will be the ability to …


Obstructions To Embedding Genus-1 Tangles In Links, Susan Marie Abernathy Jan 2014

Obstructions To Embedding Genus-1 Tangles In Links, Susan Marie Abernathy

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Given a compact, oriented 3-manifold M in S3 with boundary, an (M,2n)-tangle T is a 1-manifold with 2n boundary components properly embedded in M. We say that T embeds in a link L in S3 if T can be completed to L by adding a 1-manifold with 2n boundary components exterior to M. The link L is called a closure of T. We focus on the case of (S_1 x D_2, 2)-tangles, also called genus-1 tangles, and consider the following question: given a genus-1 tangle G and a link L, how can we tell if L is a closure of …


Numerical Experiments Of Hurricane Impact On Vertical Mixing And De-Stratification Of The Louisiana Shelf Waters, Mohammadnabi Allahdadi Jan 2014

Numerical Experiments Of Hurricane Impact On Vertical Mixing And De-Stratification Of The Louisiana Shelf Waters, Mohammadnabi Allahdadi

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The numerical model FVCOM (Finite Volume Community Ocean Model) was applied to study the effects of Hurricane Katrina on the vertical mixing over the Louisiana shelf and the process of post-storm re-stratification. Wind field from Hurricane Katrina was generated using a single vortex analytical model and was evaluated using available wind measurements over the shelf. Simulations of shelf circulation under Hurricane Katrina were done through several numerical tests to find the best approach for treating vertical eddy viscosity. Model results for the shelf during Katrina demonstrated opposite currents between surface and bottom for most of the shelf area. Results also …


On The Infinitesimal Theory Of Chow Groups, Benjamin F. Dribus Jan 2014

On The Infinitesimal Theory Of Chow Groups, Benjamin F. Dribus

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The Chow groups of codimension-p algebraic cycles modulo rational equivalence on a smooth algebraic variety X have steadfastly resisted the efforts of algebraic geometers to fathom their structure. Except for the case p=1, which yields an algebraic group, the Chow groups remain mysterious. This thesis explores a "linearization" approach to this problem, focusing on the infinitesimal structure of the Chow groups near their identity elements. This method was adumbrated in recent work of Mark Green and Phillip Griffiths. Similar topics have been explored by Bloch, Stienstra, Hesselholt, Van der Kallen, and others. A famous formula of Bloch expresses the Chow …


Coloring Graphs Drawn With Crossings, Daniel Allen Guillot Jan 2014

Coloring Graphs Drawn With Crossings, Daniel Allen Guillot

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation will examine various results for graph colorings. It begins by introducing some basic graph theory concepts, focusing on those ideas relevant to graph embeddings, and by introducing terminology to allow a formal discussion of drawings of graphs. Chapter 2 focuses on results for proper colorings of graphs with good drawings, using a previous result from Král and Stacho as inspiration. Chapter 3 expands on the ideas of Chapter 2 and focuses on cyclic colorings of embedded graphs. Chapters 5 and 6 examine results for total and list colorings, respectively, of drawings of graphs. Finally, Chapter 6 introduces generalized …


Parallel Processes In Hpx: Designing An Infrastructure For Adaptive Resource Management, Vinay Chandra Amatya Jan 2014

Parallel Processes In Hpx: Designing An Infrastructure For Adaptive Resource Management, Vinay Chandra Amatya

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Advancement in cutting edge technologies have enabled better energy efficiency as well as scaling computational power for the latest High Performance Computing(HPC) systems. However, complexity, due to hybrid architectures as well as emerging classes of applications, have shown poor computational scalability using conventional execution models. Thus alternative means of computation, that addresses the bottlenecks in computation, is warranted. More precisely, dynamic adaptive resource management feature, both from systems as well as application's perspective, is essential for better computational scalability and efficiency. This research presents and expands the notion of Parallel Processes as a placeholder for procedure definitions, targeted at one …


Performance Improvement Of Distributed Computing Framework And Scientific Big Data Analysis, Praveenkumar Kondikoppa Jan 2014

Performance Improvement Of Distributed Computing Framework And Scientific Big Data Analysis, Praveenkumar Kondikoppa

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Analysis of Big data to gain better insights has been the focus of researchers in the recent past. Traditional desktop computers or database management systems may not be suitable for efficient and timely analysis, due to the requirement of massive parallel processing. Distributed computing frameworks are being explored as a viable solution. For example, Google proposed MapReduce, which is becoming a de facto computing architecture for Big data solutions. However, scheduling in MapReduce is coarse grained and remains as a challenge for improvement. Related with MapReduce scheduler when configured over distributed clusters, we identify two issues: data locality disruption and …


Ito Formula And Girsanov Theorem On A New Ito Integral, Yun Peng Jan 2014

Ito Formula And Girsanov Theorem On A New Ito Integral, Yun Peng

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The celebrated Ito theory of stochastic integration deals with stochastic integrals of adapted stochastic processes. The Ito formula and Girsanov theorem in this theory are fundamental results which are used in many applied fields, in particular, the finance and the stock markets, e.g. the Black-Scholes model. In chapter 1 we will briefly review the Ito theory. In recent years, there have been several extension of the Ito integral to stochastic integrals of non-adapted stochastic processes. In this dissertation we will study an extension initiated by Ayed and Kuo in 2008. In Chapter 2 we review this new stochastic integral and …


Effects Of Forest Fragmentation On Central Amazonian Bird Demography, Jared Desmond Wolfe Jan 2014

Effects Of Forest Fragmentation On Central Amazonian Bird Demography, Jared Desmond Wolfe

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Avian diversity in degraded fragmented Amazonian landscapes depends on the persistence of species in cleared and disturbed areas. Regenerating forest facilitates bird dispersal within degraded Amazonian landscapes and may tip the balance in favor of persistence in previously depauperate habitat patches. Despite the potential value of Amazonian second growth, we lack comparisons of demography among second growth, continuous forest, forest fragments in regenerating landscapes, and truly isolated fragments. Here, we used point-count and capture data to compare Amazonian bird communities among continuous forest plots, 100 ha forest fragments with adjacent second growth, 100 ha forested islands bounded by water, young …


Cyanobacteria Harmful Algal Blooms In South Louisiana Estuaries : A Synthesis Of Field Research, Management Implications, And Outreach, Emily Anne Smith Jan 2014

Cyanobacteria Harmful Algal Blooms In South Louisiana Estuaries : A Synthesis Of Field Research, Management Implications, And Outreach, Emily Anne Smith

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Estuaries are biologically productive and important habitats for several fisheries. However, human intervention has separated many estuaries from their needed freshwater source and the commonly used solution is to use diversions to regulate the flow. This episodic increase in nutrients into estuaries has sometimes led to the formation of freshwater cyanobacteria HABs (CyanoHABs). The goal of this dissertation was to look at a field research study of phytoplankton bloom dynamics; management implications for cyanobacteria entering estuaries; and an outreach effort in relation to residents knowledge about cyanobacteria and algae. The first study compared the phytoplankton bloom dynamics, specifically CyanoHABs, in …


A Study On Fairness And Latency Issues Over High Speed Networks And Data Center Networks, Lin Xue Jan 2014

A Study On Fairness And Latency Issues Over High Speed Networks And Data Center Networks, Lin Xue

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Newly emerging computer networks, such as high speed networks and data center networks, have characteristics of high bandwidth and high burstiness which make it difficult to address issues such as fairness, queuing latency and link utilization. In this study, we first conduct extensive experimental evaluation of the performance of 10Gbps high speed networks. We found inter-protocol unfairness and larger queuing latency are two outstanding issues in high speed networks and data center networks. There have been several proposals to address fairness and latency issues at switch level via queuing schemes. These queuing schemes have been fairly successful in addressing either …


Some Numerical And Phenomenological Studies In Loop Quantum Cosmology, Brajesh Kumar Gupt Jan 2014

Some Numerical And Phenomenological Studies In Loop Quantum Cosmology, Brajesh Kumar Gupt

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

A key feature of the singularity resolution in loop quantum cosmology (LQC) is the occurrence of the quantum bounce when the spacetime curvature becomes comparable to the Planck scale. The presence of quantum bounce greatly modifies the dynamics of the early universe and can have important implications for observational signatures. Although the quantum bounce has been previously studied via numerical methods for initial conditions that correspond to large macroscopic universes at late times, a detailed study of the robustness of the quantum bounce for a generic class of initial condition has so far been missing due to severe computational challenges. …


Synthetic Routes To Therapeutic Agents Via Masked Functionalities: From Orthogonal Peptide Crosslink To Photothermal Cancer Prodrug, Chyree Shantel Batton Jan 2014

Synthetic Routes To Therapeutic Agents Via Masked Functionalities: From Orthogonal Peptide Crosslink To Photothermal Cancer Prodrug, Chyree Shantel Batton

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The theonellamides are a family of compounds distinguished by their crosslinking ô-histidinoalanine (ô-HAL) residue. Part one of this dissertation details the synthesis of an orthogonally protected ô-HAL building block that will be incorporated into a total synthesis of theonellamide C. Selective deprotection of each amine and acid of this orthogonally protected building block is also demonstrated. Various reaction partners for the assembly of ô-histidinoalanine were explored. One approach involved the coupling of N-Fmoc-â-iodoalanine benzyl ester and (Nðim)-blocked histidine nucleophiles including a fused bicyclic urea and a Boc-His(Nð-Pac)-OMe. While the imidazolium salts were identified by mass spectrometry, elimination of the iodide …


A Standardized Ultrasonography Classification For Channel Catfish Ovarian Development, Noel D. Novelo Jan 2014

A Standardized Ultrasonography Classification For Channel Catfish Ovarian Development, Noel D. Novelo

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The goal of this dissertation was to develop application of ultrasonography as a decision-making tool in genetic improvement programs for channel catfish Ictalurus punctatus. A literature review on the use of ultrasonography in fish reproduction generated a comprehensive reference data set intended to benefit existing and potential users. It exposed the need for reporting of instrument control settings and standardization of fish handling and imaging procedures. These issues were addressed from the onset of this work by assessing more than 6,300 channel catfish ovaries by use of initial fish handling and imaging procedures developed (2004-2005) at the Louisiana State University …


Reductive Alkylation Of Proteins Towards Structural And Biological Applications, Kevin Jerome Roberson Jan 2014

Reductive Alkylation Of Proteins Towards Structural And Biological Applications, Kevin Jerome Roberson

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy is a proven technique for protein structure and dynamic studies, typically requiring the incorporation of stable magnetic isotopes to improve sensitivity and assign resonances. Degenerate levels of 13C-incorporation have been the biggest obstacle for mass spectrometry-assisted assignment of 13C-dimethylamine resonances in nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy (NMR). Reductive 13C-methylation is an alternative labeling method for proteins not amenable to bacterial host overexpression. Because reductive 13C-methylation adds sparse, isotopic labels, traditional methods of assigning the NMR signals are not applicable. The research presented in the first part of this dissertation explores several methods used to break the …


Design, Synthesis, And Exploration Of A Chimeric Antioxidant And New Crosslinkers For Molecular Imprinting, Danielle Songe Meador Jan 2014

Design, Synthesis, And Exploration Of A Chimeric Antioxidant And New Crosslinkers For Molecular Imprinting, Danielle Songe Meador

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The improvement and utility of crosslinkers are important topics of molecular imprinting. Crosslinker significance is evident when molecularly imprinted polymer (MIP) composition related to performance as separation media is examined. Crosslinkers account for the bulk of MIP formulations made through traditional imprinting (80-90%) and is even greater when the One Monomer Molecularly Imprinted Polymer (OMNiMIP) approach is utilized (100%.) It is not surprising that alteration of the bulk component will result in different separation performances. Crosslinkers studied in this work were designed, synthesized, and evaluated toward improvement in OMNiMIP selectivity. In particular, functionality and number of polymerizable groups, addition of …


Selected Problems On Matroid Minors, Jesse Taylor Jan 2014

Selected Problems On Matroid Minors, Jesse Taylor

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation begins with an introduction to matroids and graphs. In the first chapter, we develop matroid and graph theory definitions and preliminary results sufficient to discuss the problems presented in the later chapters. These topics include duality, connectivity, matroid minors, and Cunningham and Edmonds's tree decomposition for connected matroids. One of the most well-known excluded-minor results in matroid theory is Tutte's characterization of binary matroids. The class of binary matroids is one of the most widely studied classes of matroids, and its members have many attractive qualities. This motivates the study of matroid classes that are close to being …


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 …


Local Conjugations Of Groups And Applications To Number Fields, Bir B. Kafle Jan 2014

Local Conjugations Of Groups And Applications To Number Fields, Bir B. Kafle

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation studies pairs of subgroups H, H' of a finite group G together with a bijective map Φ H −> H' that is a local conjugation, meaning that each element h in H is conjugate in G to its image Φ(h). The map Φ is not required to take products to products. The motivation for studying such pairs comes from a paper of F. Gassmann in 1926, in which he formulated an equivalent but different-sounding condition now known as Gassmann’s condition. There are now at least ten equivalent reformulations of Gassmann’s condition, of which local conjugation is perhaps the …


Surface Chemistry And Growth Of Oxide Supported Metal Nanoparticles, Ziyu Zhang Jan 2014

Surface Chemistry And Growth Of Oxide Supported Metal Nanoparticles, Ziyu Zhang

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

A model heterogeneous catalyst inspired by a real catalyst is synthesized for the purpose of understanding how it works. To make such model catalysts, we choose to evaporate metal atoms on metal oxide single crystals and measure them under UHV conditions. The study of model catalysts could advance the understandings of fundamental catalytic properties of real catalysts and helps to optimize or redesign industrial catalysts. In our experiments, many ultra-high vacuum (UHV) techniques have been employed to investigate the atomic and electronic structure of the surface as well as the interface of the prepared samples. In particular, the surface-sensitive tools …