Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Digital Commons Network™

Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Discipline
Keyword
Publication Year

Articles 1471 - 1500 of 2330

Full-Text Articles in Entire DC Network

Subtle Shifts: Using The Brightest To Darkest Modal Concept To Express Jazz Harmony, John Anthony Madere Jan 2011

Subtle Shifts: Using The Brightest To Darkest Modal Concept To Express Jazz Harmony, John Anthony Madere

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

In this paper, I will outline a method of composition that I believe has been highly under-used in jazz composition. I have studied the work of composers Ron Miller and Maria Schneider, and have used their concept of brighter to darker modes to further my modal exploration. With explanation and musical examples, I will explain two possible ways to achieve 12 modes that progress from bright to dark, and then from dark back to bright. Another purpose of this paper is to provide a compositional aid to other composers interested in this concept and the subtle shades of major and …


Accountability Models For Alternative Schools, Belinda B. Brand Jan 2011

Accountability Models For Alternative Schools, Belinda B. Brand

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Using historical test data from the standardized testing program (LEAP, iLEAP) in the state of Louisiana, this sequential mixed methods study utilized hierarchical linear modeling (HLM) and a logistic regression method to test alternate measures of school performance (student achievement model, growth model, and transition to 9th grade) applied to alternative middle schools serving students who are academically behind. These schools are defined as those serving students who have not yet been able to transition to high school due to grade retention and are substantially older than their grade peers (Aron, 2003). The quantitative study sample included both students attending …


Semiconducting Polymers And Block Copolymers Prepared By Chain-Growth Living Polymerization, Jinwoo Choi Jan 2011

Semiconducting Polymers And Block Copolymers Prepared By Chain-Growth Living Polymerization, Jinwoo Choi

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Organic semiconducting polymers are the unique materials that considered a basis for the next generation of electronic and optoelectronic applications. However, high device performance of semiconducting polymers strongly depends on their molecular structure and nanoscale organization. Therefore, it is an essential task to develop robust and versatile synthetic approaches to build such well-defined semiconducting polymer materials. This Ph.D. study aimed at design of state-of-the-art synthetic approaches towards organic semiconducting polymers via chain-growth living polymerization as well as development of polymer architectures which can self-organize into supramolecular nanoassemblies or allow external control of the polymer’s properties. First, we prepared a series …


Influences Of Landscape Characteristics On The Nesting Ecology Of Female Wild Turkeys And Behavior Of Raccoons, Michael E. Byrne Jan 2011

Influences Of Landscape Characteristics On The Nesting Ecology Of Female Wild Turkeys And Behavior Of Raccoons, Michael E. Byrne

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Nest predation is the principle source of reproductive failure in many bird species. Understanding nest predation requires knowledge of interactions between landscape characteristics, and the ecology and behavior of birds and local nest predators. I studied nesting ecology and multi-scale habitat selection of female wild turkeys and the habitat selection and searching behaviors of raccoons, an important nest predator, in a bottomland hardwood forest in Louisiana. My objective was to evaluate the relationships between habitat, wild turkey nest site selection, and raccoon foraging behavior. I used first-passage time (FPT) analysis on nightly foraging tracks of raccoons during the turkey nesting …


Efficient And Robust Signal Detection Algorithms For The Communication Applications, Lu Lu Jan 2011

Efficient And Robust Signal Detection Algorithms For The Communication Applications, Lu Lu

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Signal detection and estimation has been prevalent in signal processing and communications for many years. The relevant studies deal with the processing of information-bearing signals for the purpose of information extraction. Nevertheless, new robust and efficient signal detection and estimation techniques are still in demand since there emerge more and more practical applications which rely on them. In this dissertation work, we proposed several novel signal detection schemes for wireless communications applications, such as source localization algorithm, spectrum sensing method, and normality test. The associated theories and practice in robustness, computational complexity, and overall system performance evaluation are also provided.


Characterization Of Foam Flow In Pipes Using Two Flow Regime Concept, Rahul Narayanrao Gajbhiye Jan 2011

Characterization Of Foam Flow In Pipes Using Two Flow Regime Concept, Rahul Narayanrao Gajbhiye

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The objective of this study is to investigate the characteristics of foam flow behavior in pipes in a wide range of experimental conditions, including two pipe materials (stainless steel and nylon pipes with about 0.36 - 0.38 inch in inner diameter and 12 ft in length), three surfactant formulations (Cedepal FA-406, Stepanform-1050, and Aquet-944), and three surfactant concentrations (0.1, 0.5, and 5 wt%). The concept of “two foam-flow regimes”, consisting of high-quality regime and low-quality regime, is at the heart of interpreting the experimental data. The experimental results in horizontal pipes showed the presence of two distinct high-quality and low-quality …


Extreme Scale Parallel Nbody Algorithm With Event Driven Constraint Based Execution Model, Chirag Dekate Jan 2011

Extreme Scale Parallel Nbody Algorithm With Event Driven Constraint Based Execution Model, Chirag Dekate

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Traditional scientific applications such as Computational Fluid Dynamics, Partial Differential Equations based numerical methods (like Finite Difference Methods, Finite Element Methods) achieve sufficient efficiency on state of the art high performance computing systems and have been widely studied / implemented using conventional programming models. For emerging application domains such as Graph applications scalability and efficiency is significantly constrained by the conventional systems and their supporting programming models. Furthermore technology trends like multicore, manycore, heterogeneous system architectures are introducing new challenges and possibilities. Emerging technologies are requiring a rethinking of approaches to more effectively expose the underlying parallelism to the applications …


Stories Of The Proterozoic Earth: Paleoproterozoic Chuanlinggou Arcitarchs And Neoproterozoic ¹⁷O-Depleted Barite, Yongbo Peng Jan 2011

Stories Of The Proterozoic Earth: Paleoproterozoic Chuanlinggou Arcitarchs And Neoproterozoic ¹⁷O-Depleted Barite, Yongbo Peng

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation consists of two independent topics, both critical to understanding Earth history during the Proterozoic Eon. (1) Paleoproterozoic Chuanlinggou Acritarchs: The eukaryotic affinity of acritarchs from the Chuanlinggou Formation has been questioned because of lack of indisputable morphological evidence. In this study, Chuanlinggou acritarchs were examined by jointly using optical microscopy, scanning electron microscopy, and transmission electron microscopy. In most cases, an ovoidal group of acritarchs represents a half-vesicle following a complete longitudinal rupture, which is a morphological model different from a whole envelope with medial splits, as proposed by earlier studies. This ovoidal group displays a bipolar morphology, …


Sensor-Based Autonomous Pipeline Monitoring Robotic System, Jong-Hoon Kim Jan 2011

Sensor-Based Autonomous Pipeline Monitoring Robotic System, Jong-Hoon Kim

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The field of robotics applications continues to advance. This dissertation addresses the computational challenges of robotic applications and translations of actions using sensors. One of the most challenging fields for robotics applications is pipeline-based applications which have become an indispensable part of life. Proactive monitoring and frequent inspections are critical in maintaining pipeline health. However, these tasks are highly expensive using traditional maintenance systems, knowing that pipeline systems can be largely deployed in an inaccessible and hazardous environment. Thus, we propose a novel cost effective, scalable, customizable, and autonomous sensor-based robotic system, called SPRAM System (Sensor-based Autonomous Pipeline Monitoring Robotic …


Exotic Ground States: A Study In The Structural Effects On Frustration And Dimensionality, Melissa C. Menard Jan 2011

Exotic Ground States: A Study In The Structural Effects On Frustration And Dimensionality, Melissa C. Menard

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Structural disorder and dimensionality play central roles in the characterization of structure and properties of crystalline materials. Although structural disorder is commonly considered an undesirable quality, structural disorder may be desirable when searching for new materials with exotic properties. Disorder can be used as a tunable parameter when considering atomic sizes, coordination preferences, and electronegativity differences can be varied by substituting elements into a given structure. Dimensionality can be viewed as another adjustable parameter when searching for new materials presenting unique challenges when characterizing new materials. One way to tune dimensionality is by chemical doping to affect coupling between layers/chains. …


Fragmentation Sensitivity And Its Consequences On Demography And Host-Ectoparasite Dynamics In Amazonian Birds, Erik I. Johnson Jan 2011

Fragmentation Sensitivity And Its Consequences On Demography And Host-Ectoparasite Dynamics In Amazonian Birds, Erik I. Johnson

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The Amazon rainforest is experiencing rapid deforestation due to ranching, agriculture, and urban development, which often leads to remnant patches serving as refugia for forest organisms. By mist-netting passerines in 11 forest fragments (1-, 10-, and 100-ha patches) and nearby continuous forest at the Biological Dynamics of Forest Fragmentation Project near Manaus, Brazil, I conducted a series of studies to identify mechanisms that drive population changes in fragmented landscapes. First, I examined the age structure of bird populations from six ecological guilds in fragments and continuous forest. Immatures are the dispersing age group in birds, and their relative abundance in …


Synthesis, Biological And Photophysical Studies Of Novel Compounds For Cancer Therapy, Edith Khavwajira Amuhaya Jan 2011

Synthesis, Biological And Photophysical Studies Of Novel Compounds For Cancer Therapy, Edith Khavwajira Amuhaya

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Cancer remains the second most common cause of death in the United States. It is therefore imperative that a lot of effort be put into finding a cure for this dreadful disease that shows no discrimination, and virtually anybody is at risk of developing the disease. Chapter 1 introduces basic facts about cancer and the available treatments, including PDT and BNCT. Our focus will be on these two bimodal therapies, which form the basis of my research work, which involves the synthesis of potential sensitizers to be used either in PDT or BNCT or both. In Chapter 2, I discuss …


Next Generation Multi-Scale Quantum Simulations For Strongly Correlated Materials, Shuxiang Yang Jan 2011

Next Generation Multi-Scale Quantum Simulations For Strongly Correlated Materials, Shuxiang Yang

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This thesis represents our effort to develop the next generation multi-scale quantum simulation methods suitable for strongly-correlated materials, where complicated phase-diagrams prevail, suggesting complicated underlying physics. We first give a detailed description of the parquet formalism. With its help, different approximate methods can be unified and a hierarchy of approximate methods with different accuracies and computational complexity can thus be designed. Next, we present a numerical solution of the parquet approximation. Results on the Hubbard model are compared to those obtained from Determinant Quantum Monte Carlo (DQMC), FLuctuation EXchange (FLEX), and self-consistent second-order approximation methods. The comparison shows a satisfactory …


Analytical Design Method For Cold Production Of Heavy Oil With Bottom Water Using Bilateral Sink Wells, Wenting Qin Jan 2011

Analytical Design Method For Cold Production Of Heavy Oil With Bottom Water Using Bilateral Sink Wells, Wenting Qin

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Few heavy oil reservoirs with strong bottom water drives have been developed successfully because of severe water coning. Water coning tends to cause low ultimate recovery, low well productivity, and high water production. Although thermal and gravity-assisted methods might improve recovery in oil reservoirs, such methods are widely perceived as either economically unfavorable or technologically infeasible. This study proposes a new, cold production technique, called Bilateral Water Sink (BWS), to meet those challenges. The BWS method suppresses water cresting by producing oil and water simultaneously from separate, horizontal wells completed in the oil and water zones; the oil and water …


The Effect Of Habitat Change On Nutrient Removal In The Atchafalaya River Basin, Louisiana, Amy E. Scaroni Jan 2011

The Effect Of Habitat Change On Nutrient Removal In The Atchafalaya River Basin, Louisiana, Amy E. Scaroni

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The Mississippi and Atchafalaya rivers are the major sources of freshwater and nutrients to the Gulf of Mexico. Increased nutrient loads from these rivers exacerbate eutrophication in coastal receiving waters and contribute to the large area of hypoxia that develops seasonally in the Gulf. Levees along the Mississippi River have reduced contact between the river and the historic floodplain; this limits the ability of floodplain wetlands to naturally mitigate excess nutrients. However, the Atchafalaya River diverges from the Mississippi 217 km from the Gulf and enters a large river floodplain with a widely spaced levee system. This enhances the ability …


The Attitudes Of African American Students Towards The Study Of Foreign Languages And Cultures, Katrina Watterson Jan 2011

The Attitudes Of African American Students Towards The Study Of Foreign Languages And Cultures, Katrina Watterson

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation explores the reasons that African American students participate at lower levels in foreign language programs in terms of taking courses and majoring and minoring in foreign languages. The primary foreign language that it explores is Spanish, and its findings suggest that the introduction of the language devoid of the influence of Afro-diasporic linkages to Spanish culture leads to the topic being taught in abstraction, therefore causing a lack of interest among African American students. As this study shows, a teacher's thinking about cultural and racial difference is often intimately woven into their disciplinary training, and as a result, …


Hbcu Crises And Best Practices In The Discourse Of Renewal: A Crisis Communication Case Study Of Three Institutions, Erica Courtney Taylor Jan 2011

Hbcu Crises And Best Practices In The Discourse Of Renewal: A Crisis Communication Case Study Of Three Institutions, Erica Courtney Taylor

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Crises have been a part of all societies over the course of time. Leaders of small, primitive societies may have dealt with these crises by directly communicating with their citizens or by taking other hands-on approaches to crisis management and recovery. However, in large post-modern technological societies, leaders must find more efficient ways to handle and recover from crises. This qualitative study examines three crises that occurred at three Historically Black Colleges or Universities (HBCUs) in the last six years. Crisis communication planning and practices are explored with a special focus on elements of the discourse of renewal theory each …


The Impact Of Oral Fluency And Silent Fluency On The Comprehension Of Fourth Graders, Julie Adele Wright Jan 2011

The Impact Of Oral Fluency And Silent Fluency On The Comprehension Of Fourth Graders, Julie Adele Wright

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The purpose of this quantitative study was to discover if a connection exists between oral fluency and silent fluency. Comprehension was used as the consistent measurement instrument for the study. Understanding how oral fluency transitions to silent fluency helps educators understand how to assist students with this process. Most reading done to acquire knowledge after the fourth grade is performed silently. Students need to be an effective silent reader to be successful in school. In addition, reading comprehension and most other parts of standardized testing is read silently by the student unless accommodations are put in place before testing. If …


Oceanic Light Absorption Properties: Assessment And Characterization In The Southeastern Bering Sea Using Field And Satellite Observations, Puneeta Suresh Naik Jan 2011

Oceanic Light Absorption Properties: Assessment And Characterization In The Southeastern Bering Sea Using Field And Satellite Observations, Puneeta Suresh Naik

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

In recent decades the Bering Sea has been subjected to large climatic variability with cascading consequences on its productive marine ecosystem. Long-term as well as short-term monitoring is essential if we are to maintain its capability to supply the resources on which the national and local economy depend. Remote sensing together with in-situ and laboratory measurements of physical, biological and optical properties have considerable potential for monitoring and measuring the effects of climate-driven changes on this ecosystem. A major shortcoming to obtain accurate estimates of optically active components (such as colored dissolved organic matter, non-algal particulate matter, and phytoplankton) from …


Two-Particle Level Diagrammatic Approaches For Strongly Correlated Systems, Herbert Fotso Jan 2011

Two-Particle Level Diagrammatic Approaches For Strongly Correlated Systems, Herbert Fotso

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This thesis presents the development of new numerical methods for the treatment of strongly correlated electron systems based on self-consistent approaches at both the one and the two-particle level such as the parquet formalism. The parquet formalism was solved for the first time on a two-dimensional cluster. When the fully irreducible vertex is approximated by the bare vertex, we obtain the parquet approximation. Its validity was investigated by comparing results that it produces to those of other conserving approximations such as the FLuctuation EXchange (FLEX) approximation or the Second Order Perturbation Theory (SOPT). We found that it provides a significant …


Variability In Red Snapper Otolith Microchemistry Among Gulf Of Mexico Regions, Michelle Zapp Sluis Jan 2011

Variability In Red Snapper Otolith Microchemistry Among Gulf Of Mexico Regions, Michelle Zapp Sluis

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Red snapper, Lutjanus campechanus, has been an economically important reef fish in the Gulf of Mexico (Gulf) for over 150 years and is currently overfished. Catch statistics and demographic differences have lead to the population being categorized into eastern and western substocks divided by the Mississippi River, but data is recombined to set a Gulf-wide annual catch limit. The two objectives of this study were to apply otolith nursery chemical signatures to estimate red snapper mixing dynamics in the western Gulf, and to determine if signatures based upon trace metals associated with oil and gas platforms could discriminate between region …


Numerical Studies Of Flow In Porous Media Using An Unstructured Approach, Nathan Matthew Lane Jan 2011

Numerical Studies Of Flow In Porous Media Using An Unstructured Approach, Nathan Matthew Lane

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Flow and transport in porous media is relevant to many areas of engineering and science including groundwater hydrology and the recovery of oil and gas. Porous materials are characterized by the unique shape and connectivity of the internal void structures which give rise to a large range in macroscopic transport properties. Historically an inability to accurately describe the internal pore-structure has prevented detailed study of the role of pore structure on transport. In recent decades however, the combination of high resolution imaging technologies with computational modeling has seen the development of fundamental pore-scale techniques for studying flow in porous media. …


Capturing Elements In Matroid Minors, Deborah Chun Jan 2011

Capturing Elements In Matroid Minors, Deborah Chun

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

In this dissertation, we begin with an introduction to a matroid as the natural generalization of independence arising in three different fields of mathematics. In the first chapter, we develop graph theory and matroid theory terminology necessary to the topic of this dissertation. In Chapter 2 and Chapter 3, we prove two main results. A result of Ding, Oporowski, Oxley, and Vertigan reveals that a large 3-connected matroid M has unavoidable structure. For every n exceeding two, there is an integer f(n) so that if |E(M)| exceeds f(n), then M has a minor isomorphic to the rank-n wheel or whirl, …


Testing And Improving The Luminosity Relations For Gamma-Ray Bursts, Andrew Collazzi Jan 2011

Testing And Improving The Luminosity Relations For Gamma-Ray Bursts, Andrew Collazzi

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Gamma Ray Bursts (GRBs) have several luminosity relations where a measurable property of a burst light curve or spectrum is correlated with the burst luminosity. These luminosity relations are calibrated for the fraction of bursts with spectroscopic redshifts and hence the known luminosities. GRBs have thus become known as a type of "standard candle"; where standard candle is meant in the usual sense that their luminosities can be derived from measurable properties of the bursts. GRBs can therefore be used for the same cosmology applications as Type Ia supernovae, including the construction of the Hubble Diagram and measuring massive star …


Formation And Stabilization Of Combustion-Generated Environmentally Persistent Free Radicals On Transition Metal Oxides Supported On Silica, Eric Warren Pimentel Vejerano Jan 2011

Formation And Stabilization Of Combustion-Generated Environmentally Persistent Free Radicals On Transition Metal Oxides Supported On Silica, Eric Warren Pimentel Vejerano

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The formation of environmentally persistent free radicals in combustion system was investigated from chemisorptions of chlorine- and hydroxy-substituted benzenes on transition metal oxide surface under post-combustion conditions. This manuscript reports the formation of EPFRs on silica particles containing 5% Fe(III)2O3, Ni(II)O, and Zn(II)O. The EPFRs are formed by the chemisorption of substituted aromatic molecular adsorbates on the metal cation center followed by electron transfer from the adsorbate to the metal ion at temperatures from 150 to 400 oC. Depending on the nature of the adsorbate and the temperature, two organic EPFRs were formed: a phenoxyl-type radical, which has a lower …


Redox-Active Liposome Delivery Agents With Highly Controllable Stimuli-Responsive Behavior, Nicole Hollabaugh Carrier Jan 2011

Redox-Active Liposome Delivery Agents With Highly Controllable Stimuli-Responsive Behavior, Nicole Hollabaugh Carrier

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Over the last few decades, liposomes have generated a lot of interest as drug delivery vehicles to address the need for providing both increased therapeutic efficacy and decreased systemic exposure, simultaneously. The challenge of increasing drug accumulation at diseased sites, without compromising the integrity and stability of the liposomal carrier during circulation, has been met with two possible solutions: (1) active targeting and (2) active triggering. To achieve selective and site-specific delivery of drugs to tumors, active triggering methods have been developed wherein a responsive element is incorporated into the liposomal bilayer, which causes destabilization of the liposome upon exposure …


Characterization Of Triggerable Quinones For The Development Of Enzyme-Responsive Liposomes, Maria Fabiana Mendoza Jan 2011

Characterization Of Triggerable Quinones For The Development Of Enzyme-Responsive Liposomes, Maria Fabiana Mendoza

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

For decades, there has been a lot of focus on the development of new carriers for drug delivery applications. From all of the carriers, stimuli-responsive liposomes have been studied extensively, but only a handful have been enzyme-responsive liposomes. Therefore, the field of endogenous proteins as activators of liposomes is a fertile field worthy of exploration. The research described in this dissertation involves how structural changes on the quinone moiety altered their electronic properties, as well as their behavior toward the human enzyme NAD(P)H:quinone oxidoreductase type-1 (hNQO1, over expressed in certain tumor tissues), thus yielding a series of triggerable quinones to …


Guided Modes And Resonant Transmission In Periodic Structures, Hairui Tu Jan 2011

Guided Modes And Resonant Transmission In Periodic Structures, Hairui Tu

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

We analyze resonant scattering phenomena of scalar fields in periodic slab and pillar structures that are related to the interaction between guided modes of the structure and plane waves emanating from the exterior. The mechanism for the resonance is the nonrobust nature of the guided modes with respect to perturbations of the wavenumber, which reflects the fact that the frequency of the mode is embedded in the continuous spectrum of the pseudo-periodic Helmholtz equation. We extend previous complex perturbation analysis of transmission anomalies to structures whose coefficients are only required to be measurable and bounded from above and below, and …


Symmetric Spaces, Se-Jong Kim Jan 2011

Symmetric Spaces, Se-Jong Kim

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

We first review the basic theory of a general class of symmetric spaces with canonical reflections, midpoints, and displacement groups. We introduce a notion of gyrogroups established by A. A. Ungar and define gyrovector spaces slightly different from Ungar's setting. We see the categorical equivalence of symmetric spaces and gyrovector spaces with respect to their corresponding operations. In a smooth manifold with spray we define weighted means using the exponential map and develop the Lie-Trotter formula with respect to midpoint operation. Via the idea that we associate a spray with a Loos symmetric space, we construct an analytic scalar multiplication …


Molecular Mechanisms Of Bacillus Thuringiensis Resistance In The Sugarcane Borer, Yunlong Yang Jan 2011

Molecular Mechanisms Of Bacillus Thuringiensis Resistance In The Sugarcane Borer, Yunlong Yang

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The sugarcane borer, Diatraea saccharalis, is a major target pest of transgenic corn expressing Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) proteins in many areas of the U.S. mid-southern region. A Cry1Ab-resistant (Cry1Ab-RR) strain of D. saccharalis has been developed from a single two-parent family-line. To examine the molecular mechanisms of the Cry1Ab resistance in this insect strain, cDNAs of five types of potential candidate genes related to Bt resistance were sequenced using reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) and 5’ rapid amplification of cDNA end (5’ RACE). The Bt resistance candidate genes examined included three trypsins (DsTRYs), three chymotrypsins (DsCHYs), three aminopeptidases N …