Digital Commons Network^™

The 2001 Cape Town Convention On International Interests In Mobile Equipment And Aircraft Equipment Protocol: Internationalising Asset-Based Financing Principles For The Acquisition Of Aircraft And Engines, Lorne S. Clark

Journal of Air Law and Commerce

No abstract provided.

The Wright Patent Wars And Early American Aviation, Herbert A. Johnson

Journal of Air Law and Commerce

No abstract provided.

Let There Be Flight: It's Time To Reform The Regulation Of Commercial Space Travel, Charity Trelease Ryabinkin

Journal of Air Law and Commerce

No abstract provided.

Deregulation Of The Airline Computer Reservation Systems (Crs) Industry, Timothy M. Ravich

Journal of Air Law and Commerce

No abstract provided.

Iowa’S Covered Bridges, Marilyn K. Schmitz Ralls

Graduate Research Papers

The purpose of this project was to write and illustrate pictorial an informational picture book on Iowa's covered bridges. This picture book was meant to assist upper elementary teachers in teaching transportation and architecture to their students and inform them of the value of covered bridges in Iowa's history. The finished product is an informational picture book aimed for nine to twelve year olds, but which younger children and adults could enjoy. In sharing this book with others, the readers mostly were drawn to the photographs, but were also drawn to the writing, especially the ghost story.

Performance Estimation Of A Sip Based Push-To-Talk Service For 3g Wireless Networks, Eoin O'Regan

Theses

Push To Talk (PTT) services have been in existence for several decades providing dispatch services via two-way radio such as walkie-talkies. For a number of years now PTT services have been available for use over mobile phone networks. These mobile PTT services have occupied a niche market with business users and have been provided on proprietary networks that do not enable roaming.

Over the past year there has been an explosion of interest in the concept of PTT provided over mobile networks using Internet Protocol (IP) technology. This service uses cellular access and radio resources more efficiently than circuit-switched cellular …

A Service-Based Architecture For Learning Management Systems Which Supports Personalisation And Collaboration, Markus Schmid

Theses

This work develops a service-based architecture for an extensible and customisable learning management system (LMS) runtime environment. The architecture mainly defines interfaces for the interaction of functional system components represented by loosely coupled distributed services. Services that represent functional components of the distributed LMS are called e-leaming services. In addition, underlying infrastructure services provide supportive functionality such as service-lookup within an institution. Users access the system using an LMS portal component that acts as a front-end for the LMS services.

While existing e-leaming environments provide a relatively good coverage of most of the functional requirements defined in this work, they …

Material Length Scales In Gradient-Dependent Plasticity/Damage And Size Effects: Theory And Computation, Rashid Kamel Abu Al-Rub

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Structural materials display a strong size-dependence when deformed non-uniformly into the inelastic range: smaller is stronger. This effect has important implications for an increasing number of applications in structural failure, electronics, functional coatings, composites, micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMS), nanostructured materials, micro/nanometer fabrication technologies, etc. The mechanical behavior of these applications cannot be characterized by classical (local) continuum theories because they incorporate no ‘material length scales’ and consequently predict no size effects. On the other hand, it is still not possible to perform quantum and atomistic simulations on realistic time and structures. It is therefore necessary to develop a scale-dependent continuum theory …

Constructive Habituation As An Educational Approach To Process-Object Reification In Mathematics, Alonzo F. Peterson

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Sfard and Thompson (1994) state that what matters most is that educators develop ways of thinking, teaching, and learning mathematics. This study introduced constructive habituation, a new strategy developed to aid both students and teachers in the thinking, teaching, and learning of mathematics. Constructive habituation attempts to unite constructivist teaching methods aimed at supporting students’ conceptual understanding of content and habituationist teaching method aimed at establishing routine responses to routine tasks. This study is exploratory in nature, designed to investigate if constructive habituation is a more effective means than a traditional teaching method in helping students reach process-object reification as …

Ctp: Phosphoethanolamine Cytidylytransferase And Dag: Cdp-Ethanolamine Ethanolaminephosphotransferase In The Cdp-Ethanolamine Pathway Of Chlamydomonas Reinhardtti, Wenyu Yang

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Chlamydomonas reinhardtii Dangeard does not have two major phospholipids, PS and PC. This fact renders C. reinhardtii a desirable system for investigations of the PE biosynthetic pathway and its regulation independent of PC and PS biosynthesis. The cDNA coding for ECT protein in C. reinhardtii was cloned from a cDNA library. The ECT cDNA encodes a protein of 443 amino acid residues. The ECT protein in C. reinhardtii has a repetitive internal sequence in its N- and C-terminal halves. Each repeat half of the protein has a HXGH motif, a site considered to be in the catalytic domain. The protein …

Microelectrophoresis System Utilizing Conductivity Detection Analyzing Biological Molecues, Michelle Galloway

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Microfabrication technology has proven to be a valuable tool for creating polymer-based devices utilized in chemical and biochemical assays. Although, reducing the size of the device allows for short analysis times and reduces the reagent demand to ultrasmall volumes (< 1 nanoliter), a resulting consequence is the constraint placed on the limits of detection associated with the detector hardware required for readout. To overcome such constraints, laser-induced fluorescence (LIF) is often employed as a detection method as it provides low detection limits, which approach the single molecule level. Unfortunately, most LIF systems do not offer the benefits of miniaturization, with the detector components (i.e. laser, optics, filters) often times requiring a much larger footprint compared to the device. Another readout strategy that has shown promise for these devices is conductivity detection. Detection can be accomplished using either conventional-size or microfabricated electrodes, which can be integrated on the device. Although conductivity has been commonly used to detect inorganic or small organic species, the potential for detection of biological species has received little attention. In this work, an integrated conductivity detector was developed for the analysis of amino acids, peptides, proteins, and oligonucleotides (double-stranded DNA). Using the detector, mass detection sensitivities in the range of 10^-18 - 10^-21 moles were achieved. To increase the throughput of the system a state-of-the-art, multichannel device with a conductivity array detector was devised. This device, which consists of a 16-channel fluidic network and a printed circuit board, is geared toward automating three-processing steps onto a single fluidic platform including purification, preconcentration and detection for downstream parallel processing.

Electronic Structural Investigations Of Bi- And Polymetallic Complexes Using Quantum Mechanical Methods, Zakiya Sheni Wilson

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Understanding the dynamics influencing chemical reactivity is essential for properly exploiting matter into more useful purposes. In that manner, computational chemistry is a tool frequently used to study chemical properties at the most intimate level, i.e. the single molecule.

With this work, we probe the chemistry governing a variety of multi-faceted bi- and polymetallic compounds. To date our research consists of four major projects: bimetallic rhodium-catalyzed hydroformylation and aldehyde-water shift hydrocarboxylation catalysis; a novel linear M-H-M interaction in a bridged bis(dialkylphosphino)methane complex of nickel; and CeBe₁₃, a heavy fermion conductor. Computational investigations on these systems allow us to …

Quantification Of Marine Sediment Properties From Planar And Volumetric Pore Geometries, Allen Hagerman Reed

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Pore geometry and topology are important determinants of sediment physical properties, such as porosity and permeability. They also influence processes that occur in the sediment, such as acoustic propagation, attenuation, and dispersion, single- and multi-phase fluid flow, and hydrodynamic dispersion. This study uses images to evaluate pore geometry and topology of ooid (subspherical particles) and siliclastic (angular quartz) sand that was collected from the marine environment south of Bimni Bahamas and Ft. Walton Beach, FL, respectively. Image analysis techniques and predictive tools enable insight into the relationships among sediment pore geometry, topology, and physical properties for these differently shaped sands. …

The Organ Works Of Fela Sowande: A Nigerian Organist-Composer, Godwin Simeon Sadoh

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Fela Sowande (1905-1987) has a huge compositional output including orchestral and vocal works. However, his organ music outnumbered the totality of his compositions. His organ pieces represent a truly intercultural music in which distinct tripartite cultural idioms are evident—Nigerian, African American and European. Works of this nature serve as creative source materials for aspiring composers, performers, scholars, music educators, and students in Africa and the world. This composer, folklorist, and music educator was born into a well-known music family in Nigeria. He was active in radio broadcasting, Yoruba folklore and mythology, indigenous music research, Nigerian art music, performance, orchestral conducting, …

Bagasse Fiber For Production Of Nonwoven Materials, Ovidiu Iulius Chiparus

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Raw materials used in nonwoven products vary greatly, covering the entire spectrum from synthetic to natural fibers. The limitation of use for industrial applications of nonwoven products has long been surpassed, today nonwovens being found in diverse applications ranging from intimate apparel to geotextiles. The present work has as its ultimate goal to develop a commercial method for characterizing some of the physical properties of bagasse or other unconventional fibers obtained through a new atmospheric extraction method, and also to create and analyze different nonwoven structures based on bagasse, kenaf and other annual plants. Bagasse fibers were extracted from sugar …

Optimization Of A Skewed Logistic Distribution With Respect To The Kolmogorov-Smirnov Test, James Charles Finney

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The four-parameter kappa distribution (Hosking 1994) was analyzed with respect to the various possible shapes of the probability density function. The general form for the cumulative distribution function when both h and k are non-zero is: F(x) = { 1 - h [ 1 - k ( x - ξ ) / α ]^1/k }^1/h. The parameters h and k work together to define the function's shape, ξ affects location, and α is the scale parameter. A method of selecting parameters to minimize the Kolmogorov-Smirnov test statistic, D, was developed. The technique was first described for the …

Effective Developmental Leadership: A Study Of The Traits And Behaviors Of A Leader Who Develops Both People And The Organization, Michael Stanley Wilson

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This study identified the traits and behaviors of an effective developmental leader”-one whose primary focus is the development of the people and the organization he or she lead. The study determined the traits and behaviors of a leader who posses an effective developmental orientation towards people. The research incorporated both qualitative and quantitative research methodologies. Data was collected using both open ended questions and Likert-type scaled instruments. This data was analyzed using both statistical techniques and expert panels. The results of this study yielded six identified traits and seven identified behaviors of a developmental leader. A developmental leader was found …

Turbine Blade Tip Cooling And Heat Transfer, Hasan Nasir

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Turbine blade tip leakage flow from blade pressure side to suction side over the tip surface increases the thermal loading to the blade tip, leading to a high local temperature and thus, is considered one of the primary sources of blade failure. Leakage flow can be reduced by using a recessed or squealer tip blade or by cooling the blade tip to incorporate film cooling. The performance of different recessed tip geometries were investigated and compared with plane tip performance. A transient liquid crystal technique was employed to measure detailed heat transfer coefficient distributions. Coolant injection from holes located on …

Small And Large Strain Monitoring Of Unsaturated Soil Behavior By Means Of Multiaxial Testing And Shear Wave Propagation, Oscar F. Porras Ortiz

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The deformation and strength behavior of dry and saturated soils is controlled by the effective stresses as defined by Terzaghi. However, Terzaghi’s definition of the effective stresses fails for unsaturated soils, as capillarity force influence is also important. The effects of capillarity forces in soil are evaluated by the concept of matrix suction. Several techniques are used to evaluate soil suction however their applications involve difficult calibrations and tedious methodology. Furthermore, suction is a microscopic property and it is influenced by interparticle soil attraction, which can change by sampling disturbance. This research program evaluates the effect of suction on stiffness …

Synthesis, Structure, And Tribological Behavior Of Nanocomposite Dlc Based Thin Films, Varshni Singh

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Diamond-like carbon (DLC) films possess a combination of attractive properties and have been largely employed to modify the tribological behavior of materials. Nanocomposite, metal-containing DLC films are the new generation of these coatings providing tremendous potential to modify and tailor their properties expanding their applications in the field of nanotechnology. The present study investigates nanoscale effects on the tribological behavior of composite nanostructured DLC-based films and functional coatings. Three aspects were studied: (i) effect of Cr interlayer on a functionally gradient substrate; (ii) nanoparticulate Cr-containing DLC (Cr-DLC) films; and (iii) nanocomposite multilayered Cr/DLC coatings. Intensified plasma assisted nitriding produced a …

Pattern-Based Model Transformation: A Metamodel-Based Approach To Model Evolution, Sheena Judson Miller

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Software systems continue to grow in complexity at a rapid pace, creating systems that are complex to build and evolve. The problems that accompany changes in requirements, system upgrades, and error correction produce a desire for software evolution methods that increase the efficiency and effectiveness of adapting complex software to changes. As software systems evolve, design models must be modified to accommodate the required changes. Techniques that control the changes to models in a systematic manner are a key to model evolution. A process that improves the ability to effectively modify a design, thereby enhancing design qualities, supports the need …

Leaf Litter Processing By Macrodetritivores In Natural And Restored Neotropical Mangrove Forests, Gary Eugene Raulerson

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Knowledge of mangrove litter dynamics is crucial to an understanding of the energetic links between mangrove ecosystems and nearby estuaries and coastal waters. Previous research into the role played by macrodetritivores in Neotropical mangrove litter processing has been contradictory. This study used leaf tethering to examine the effects of macrodetritivores on initial rates of mangrove litter degradation in South Florida, USA. Leaf litter dynamics experiments were run in both natural and restored mangrove forests to assess functionality of the restoration projects. Although less important than in some other parts of the world (e.g., the Indo-Pacific), macrodetritivores played a significant role …

Optimization Of Agrobacterium Mediated Cotton Transformation Using Shoot Apices Explants And Quantitative Trait Loci Analysis Of Yield And Yield Component Traits In Upland Cotton (Gossypium Hirsutum), Baogong Jiang

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Cotton (Gossypium spp) is an important world crop. Although great improvements have been achieved through traditional breeding methods, cotton breeders are facing many problems, i.e., narrow genetic base, inability to use alien genes and difficulty in breaking gene linkages. Genetic transformations and quantitative trait loci (QTL) analyses are main tools used by breeders to overcome these problems. In this dissertation, an optimized cotton regeneration system from shoot apices was developed. The regeneration rate was increased to 85% by combining rooting induction, indole acetic acid (IAA) shock and graft techniques. The regeneration system is genotype-independent and the whole process takes 12 …

Design And Operating Strategies For Bioreactors Treating Dynamically Varying Concentrations Of Gas-Phase Volatile Organic Compounds (Vocs), Congna Li

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The dynamically varying concentrations of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in most waste gas streams present a challenge in design and operation of biofilters treating such off-gases. Studies described in this dissertation were directed toward development and experimental testing of two design modifications/operating strategies that have the potential to improve biofilter performance during unsteady-state loadings. In the first design modification studied, activated carbon was incorporated into biofilter packing media and a novel periodic operating strategy, Sequencing Batch Biofilter (SBB) operation, was tested under “normal” and various “shock” loading conditions treating methyl ethyl ketone contaminated air. Results demonstrate how the operational flexibility …

An Integrative Model Of Clients' Decision To Adopt An Application Service Provider, Yurong Yao

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Application Services Providers (ASPs) exploit the economics of delivering commercial off-the-shelf software over the Internet to many dispersed users, but the decision-making process to adopt the ASP business model can be complex requiring a comprehensive consideration of various factors. As a new form of outsourcing, the ASP business model differs from traditional outsourcing models with respect to the attributes associated with vendors, clients, and applications. These differences are expected to demand decision models that are distinct from those in the traditional IS outsourcing. In this study, an integrative model for ASP adoption that incorporates economic determinants, strategic determinants, and social …

International Ffa School To School Linkage Program: Case Studies Of Two Familes, Bradley Allen Leger

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The National FFA Organization is an agriculturally-based youth organization in the United States which has been providing/facilitating international experiences for its members for a number of years. One of these programs is the International FFA School to School Linkage Program (SSLP), in which selected American agricultural education/FFA programs are linked with specialized secondary agricultural schools/lyceums located in one of the countries of the former Soviet Union (FSU). The program’s main mission is for American students and teachers to share ideas with their FSU counterparts about the initiation and maintenance of small-scale agricultural entrepreneurships based on the United States’ agricultural education …

Utility Of The Implementation Of Programmatic Systems To Reduce And Eliminate Restraint Use For The Treatment Of Problem Behaviors With Individuals With Mental Retardation, Yemonja Smalls

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Persons with mental retardation continue to remain one of society’s most vulnerable groups as the number of individuals served increases and non-proportional resources are allotted to take of their needs. With results of national investigations indicating widespread indiscriminate abuse of restraints and overmedication to manage dangerous behaviors, federal mandates have been initiated to ensure ethical, safe and clinically sound use of these techniques. This study addressed the implementation of systemic changes that included a restraint education program and policy changes, careful monitoring and review of restraint and behavioral programming by oversight review bodies, and intense training of preventative and de-escalation …

The Production Of A Dextran Binding Antibody By Phage Display Library And Its Applications To Sugar Processing, Duwoon Kim

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

A phage collection (M1114), which is a mixture of two collections, M710-3R and Silica 426 each derived from a human synthetic phage antibody library (Fab 2lox), was used further enriched for dextran binding using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (ELISA) screening. The effects of dextran concentration on phage binding affinity were tested using indirect sandwich ELISA on phage collections, M1114-m74 and AE-M1114-m74-2R. Most of the phage bound to dextran (T2000) coated on a sandwich ELISA. The combination of ELISA screening and a sephadex columns enriched dextran binding 7 fold over enrichment by a single ELISA screen. Phage collection (M1114-m74) produced by combination …

Ceria-Zirconia Oxide High Temperature Desulfurization Sorbent, Kwang Bok Yi

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

High temperature desulfurization of highly reducing coal-derived gases using ceria and ceria-zirconia sorbents is the primary object of this dissertation research. If H2S concentration is reduced to less than 1 ppmv the product gas may be used with fuel cells and downstream catalytic process. CeO2 is reduced to a non-stoichiometric oxide, which is superior to CeO2 in removing H2S. Moreover, ZrO2 addition to CeO2 to form a solid solution, Ce1-xZrxO2, increases the reducibility of CeO2. This should also result in improved desulfurization performance. Pure CeO2 and sorbents, both commercially available and prepared at LSU, were tested. XRD analysis indicated that …

Dynamic Performance Of Bridges And Vehicles Under Strong Wind, Suren Chen

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The record of span length for flexible bridges has been broken with the development of modern materials and construction techniques. With the increase of bridge span, the dynamic response of the bridge becomes more significant under external wind action and traffic loads. The present research targets specifically on dynamic performance of bridges as well as the transportation under strong wind. The dissertation studied the coupled vibration features of bridges under strong wind. The current research proposed the modal coupling assessment technique for bridges. A closed-form spectral solution and a practical methodology are provided to predict coupled multimode vibration without actually …