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2005

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Palm Is Expressed In Both Developing And Adult Mouse Lens And Retina., Meryl Castellini, Louise V Wolf, Bharesh K Chauhan, Deni S Galileo, Manfred W Kilimann, Ales Cvekl, Melinda K Duncan Jan 2005

Palm Is Expressed In Both Developing And Adult Mouse Lens And Retina., Meryl Castellini, Louise V Wolf, Bharesh K Chauhan, Deni S Galileo, Manfred W Kilimann, Ales Cvekl, Melinda K Duncan

Department of Pathology, Anatomy, and Cell Biology Faculty Papers

BACKGROUND: Paralemmin (Palm) is a prenyl-palmitoyl anchored membrane protein that can drive membrane and process formation in neurons. Earlier studies have shown brain preferred Palm expression, although this protein is a major water insoluble protein in chicken lens fiber cells and the Palm gene may be regulated by Pax6. METHODS: The expression profile of Palm protein in the embryonic, newborn and adult mouse eye as well as dissociated retinal neurons was determined by confocal immunofluorescence. The relative mRNA levels of Palm, Palmdelphin (PalmD) and paralemmin2 (Palm2) in the lens and retina were determined by real time rt-PCR. RESULTS: In the …

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Glacial Deposits, Vol. 33, 2004-2005, Department Of Geography-Geology Jan 2005

Glacial Deposits, Vol. 33, 2004-2005, Department Of Geography-Geology

Glacial Deposits

Newsletter of the Department of Geography-Geology

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Semantic Classification Of Rural And Urban Images Using Learning Vector Quantization, Prakash Thulasiraman Jan 2005

Semantic Classification Of Rural And Urban Images Using Learning Vector Quantization, Prakash Thulasiraman

LSU Master's Theses

One of the major hurdles in semantic image classification is that only low-level features can be reliably extracted from images as opposed to higher level features (objects present in the scene and their inter-relationships). The main challenge lies in grouping images into semantically meaningful categories based on the available low-level visual features of the images. It is important that we have a classification method that will handle a complex image dataset with not so well defined boundaries between clusters. Learning Vector Quantization (LVQ) neural networks offer a great deal of robustness in clustering complex datasets. This study presents a semantic …

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Aspects Of The Life History, Ecophysiology, Bioenergetics, And Population Dynamics Of The Cownose Ray, Rhinoptera Bonasus, In The Northern Gulf Of Mexico, Julie Ann Neer Jan 2005

Aspects Of The Life History, Ecophysiology, Bioenergetics, And Population Dynamics Of The Cownose Ray, Rhinoptera Bonasus, In The Northern Gulf Of Mexico, Julie Ann Neer

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The cownose ray, Rhinoptera bonasus, is an elasmobranch commonly observed throughout the Gulf of Mexico. Cownose rays appear to be sensitive to water temperature. I performed laboratory experiments and collected field data to obtain basic life history information, and used the information to configure an individual-based bioenergetics model. The bioenergetics model was coupled to a matrix projection model, and the coupled models were used to predict how warmer and cooler water temperatures, compared to current conditions, would affect the growth and population dynamics of the cownose rays. The life history study determined weight at age, maturity by weight, and fecundity …

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Temporal And Spatial Harvest Patterns Of River Otter In Louisiana And Its Potential Use As A Bioindicator Species Of Water Quality, Daniel Gustavo Scognamillo Jan 2005

Temporal And Spatial Harvest Patterns Of River Otter In Louisiana And Its Potential Use As A Bioindicator Species Of Water Quality, Daniel Gustavo Scognamillo

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Louisiana is the leading state in number of river otters used in reintroduction programs in other states and in the production of pelts. However, habitat loss and degradation have prompted concern about the status of otter populations. This dissertation undertakes a spatial and temporal analysis of river otter harvest activity and examines environmental factors related to monitoring mercury levels in streams in Louisiana. Harvest data for 1957-2004 were analyzed to identify spatial and temporal trends in otter harvest activity. Changes have occurred in the last 20 years in the spatial dynamics of otter harvest in Louisiana, these include an increasing …

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Impulsive Systems, Stanislav Zabic Jan 2005

Impulsive Systems, Stanislav Zabic

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Impulsive systems arise when dynamics produce discontinuous trajectories. Discontinuties occur when movements of states happen over a small interval that resembles a point-mass measure. We adopt the formalism in which the controlled dynamic inclusion is the sum of a slow and a fast time velocities belonging to two distinct vector fields. Fast time velocities are controlled by a vector valued Borel measure. The trajectory of impulsive systems is a function of bounded variation. To give a definition of solutions, a notion of graph completion of the control measure is needed. In the nonimpulsive case, a solution can be defined as …

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Use Of Orthogonal Arrays, Quasi-Monte Carlo Sampling And Kriging Response Models For Reservoir Simulation With Many Varying Factors, Subhash Kalla Jan 2005

Use Of Orthogonal Arrays, Quasi-Monte Carlo Sampling And Kriging Response Models For Reservoir Simulation With Many Varying Factors, Subhash Kalla

LSU Master's Theses

Asset development teams may adjust simulation model parameters using experimental design to reveal which factors have the greatest impact on the reservoir performance. Response surfaces and experimental design make sensitivity analysis less expensive and more accurate, helping to optimize recovery under geological and economical uncertainties. In this thesis, experimental designs including orthogonal arrays, factorial designs, Latin hypercubes and Hammersley sequences are compared and analyzed. These methods are demonstrated for a gas well with water coning problem to illustrate the efficiency of orthogonal arrays. Eleven geologic factors are varied while optimizing three engineering factors (total of fourteen factors). The objective is …

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The Effects Of Aluminum Concentration On Growth Responses In Six Spartina Alterniflora Genotypes, Daniel Farrell Becker Jan 2005

The Effects Of Aluminum Concentration On Growth Responses In Six Spartina Alterniflora Genotypes, Daniel Farrell Becker

LSU Master's Theses

Elevated soluble aluminum concentrations can adversely affect plant growth. During a drought, wetland soils may experience higher than normal soluble aluminum due to the oxidation of metal sulfides and resulting decreases in pH, which mobilizes metallic cations. Louisiana coastal salt marshes were subject to a record-setting drought in the winter and spring of 2000 which was coincident with the die-off of large expanses of salt marsh, termed " brown marsh ". Spartina alterniflora was the primary plant species affected. However, because some individuals within large areas of die-off survived the brown marsh event, they may have been the more resistant …

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Effect Of Multiuser Interference On Subscriber Location In Cdma Networks, Rohit Sharma Jan 2005

Effect Of Multiuser Interference On Subscriber Location In Cdma Networks, Rohit Sharma

LSU Master's Theses

The last few years have witnessed an ever growing interest in the field of mobile location systems for cellular systems. The motivation is the series of regulations passed by Federal Communications Commission, requiring that wireless service providers support a mobile telephone callback feature and cell site location mechanism. A further application of the location technology is in the rapidly emerging field of intelligent transportation systems, which are intended to enhance highway safety, location based billing etc. Many of the existing location technologies use GPS and its derivatives which require a specialized subscriber equipment. This is not feasible for popular use, …

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Effect Of Estradiol-17b On The Gonadal Developemnt Of Diploid And Triploid Female Eastern Oysters, Roberto Quintana Jan 2005

Effect Of Estradiol-17b On The Gonadal Developemnt Of Diploid And Triploid Female Eastern Oysters, Roberto Quintana

LSU Master's Theses

Declines in annual oyster landings and problems associated with seasonal reduction of oyster meat yields have increased interest for development of techniques to produce oysters with enhanced growth characteristics. Research interest has been focused on developing improved lines by induction of polyploidy. The goal of the present study was to evaluate the enhancement of gonadal development of triploid oysters, by the use of the hormone estradiol 17-â (E2) to produce viable eggs for the development of tetraploid broodstocks. Previous studies with the Pacific oyster, Crassostrea gigas, have shown: (1) the need to use the larger eggs of triploid females to …

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A Crisis Of Opportunity: The Example Of New Orleans And Public Education In Antebellum Louisiana, Sarah Elisabeth Lipscomb Jan 2005

A Crisis Of Opportunity: The Example Of New Orleans And Public Education In Antebellum Louisiana, Sarah Elisabeth Lipscomb

LSU Master's Theses

The purpose of this study is to explore the development of public education in antebellum Louisiana. Using primarily public records, I found that despite the successful system instituted in New Orleans in the early 1840s, the rest of Louisiana faltered in its attempts to establish free public schools. Notwithstanding the requirement contained in the 1845 Constitution that each parish must organize public schools, the lack of guidance, supervision, and funding from the state legislature all coalesced to condemn public education in most of the rest of the state. As public schools in New Orleans thrived throughout the decades leading up …

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Two Dimensional Sediment Transport Model Using Parallel Computers, Vikas Singh Jan 2005

Two Dimensional Sediment Transport Model Using Parallel Computers, Vikas Singh

LSU Master's Theses

Management and development of water bodies is vital for meeting domestic, agricultural, energy and industrial needs. To that end, dams, artificial channels, lakes and other water structures have been constructed. Management and development of these structures encounter problems of land erosion, reservoir silting, and degradation and aggradation of channel beds, which need to be addressed. Fundamental to these problems are sediment transport, erosion and deposition. Numerical modeling of sediment transport is the best tool to simulate sediment transport in a water body. This study develops a vertically integrated two-dimensional numerical sediment transport model. Sediment transport is simulated in two parts …

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Hydrodynamic Analysis Of Compliant Journal Bearings, Amith Hanumappa Reddy Jan 2005

Hydrodynamic Analysis Of Compliant Journal Bearings, Amith Hanumappa Reddy

LSU Master's Theses

Compliant journal bearings are commonly used to support radial loads at extreme operating speeds and conditions where conventional bearings cannot operate. The journal and bearing system are supported by a thin lubricant film (gas) due to the hydrodynamic pressure distribution. To predict the bearing performance parameters, the compressible Reynolds equation is solved based on Infinitely Long Approximation (ILA), Finite Analysis (FA) and a new Modified Parabolic Approximation (MPA). The MPA method reduces the classical Reynolds equation to an ordinary differential equation. Appropriate equations and numerical solution are developed for treating a compressible Reynolds equation using MPA. A series of parametric …

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Women Pilots Unite!, Kristin M. Pantos Jan 2005

Women Pilots Unite!, Kristin M. Pantos

Undergraduate Theses and Senior Projects

No abstract provided.

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Efficient Automatic Correction And Segmentation Based 3d Visualization Of Magnetic Resonance Images, Mikhail V. Milchenko Jan 2005

Efficient Automatic Correction And Segmentation Based 3d Visualization Of Magnetic Resonance Images, Mikhail V. Milchenko

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

In the recent years, the demand for automated processing techniques for digital medical image volumes has increased substantially. Existing algorithms, however, still often require manual interaction, and newly developed automated techniques are often intended for a narrow segment of processing needs. The goal of this research was to develop algorithms suitable for fast and effective correction and advanced visualization of digital MR image volumes with minimal human operator interaction. This research has resulted in a number of techniques for automated processing of MR image volumes, including a novel MR inhomogeneity correction algorithm derivative surface fitting (dsf), automatic tissue detection algorithm …

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An Analysis Of The Variables That Influence A Country's Decision To Ratify The Stockholm Convention On Persistent Organic Pollutants, Tokesha Marie Collins Jan 2005

An Analysis Of The Variables That Influence A Country's Decision To Ratify The Stockholm Convention On Persistent Organic Pollutants, Tokesha Marie Collins

LSU Master's Theses

The objective of this thesis is to identify key factors that influence a country to ratify the Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs) Treaty. The POPs treaty seeks to eliminate or reduce the emissions of 12 POPs. I will examine the links between the countries that have ratified the POPs treaty in an effort to identify variables that may have influenced a country's decision to ratify the treaty. For each of the 165 nations in my dataset, I will examine economic, social, geographic, health, and political indicators and history of malaria and determine if a relationship exists between these variables and treaty …

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Long Term Pressure Behavior In Turbidite Reservoirs, Feng Wang Jan 2005

Long Term Pressure Behavior In Turbidite Reservoirs, Feng Wang

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

In this study, we investigated several possible mechanisms that would give rise to the anomalous pressure behavior (early concave-up on Horner plot or upward drift on the derivative curve of the log-log plot and asymmetry between the pressure drawdown and buildup behavior) sometimes encountered in the turbidite reservoirs in GOM primarily using numerical simulation and 2-level experimental designs. We ascertained the most influential parameters to the pressure behavior and identified that multilayer commingled system and the leaky compartment model are the most probable mechanisms to cause the anomalous behavior due to layer or zone property contrast to a certain degree. …

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Ability Of College Students To Simulate Adhd On Objective Measure Of Attention, Randee Lee Booksh Jan 2005

Ability Of College Students To Simulate Adhd On Objective Measure Of Attention, Randee Lee Booksh

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Complaints of ADHD symptoms in college students are not uncommon and college students frequently self-refer for assessment of ADHD. Some may seek out a diagnosis to obtain academic accommodations and/or stimulant medication. Diagnosing ADHD in college students is largely reliant on self-report measures, and to a lesser extent, objective measures of attention. The typical college student has easy access to information about ADHD, potentially facilitating efforts to simulate self-reported symptoms. The present study examined the ability of college students to effectively simulate ADHD on objective and self-report measures of attention, and examined the relationship between knowledge of ADHD and ability …

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Structural Integrity And Fatigue Crack Propagation Life Assessment Of Welded And Weld-Repaired Structures, Mohammad Shah Alam Jan 2005

Structural Integrity And Fatigue Crack Propagation Life Assessment Of Welded And Weld-Repaired Structures, Mohammad Shah Alam

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Structural integrity is the science and technology of the margin between safety and disaster. Proper evaluation of the structural integrity and fatigue life of any structure (aircraft, ship, railways, bridges, gas and oil transmission pipelines, etc.) is important to ensure the public safety, environmental protection, and economical consideration. Catastrophic failure of any structure can be avoided if structural integrity is assessed and necessary precaution is taken appropriately. Structural integrity includes tasks in many areas, such as structural analysis, failure analysis, nondestructive testing, corrosion, fatigue and creep analysis, metallurgy and materials, fracture mechanics, fatigue life assessment, welding metallurgy, development of repairing …

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Riding Out The Risks: An Ethnographic Study Of Risk Perceptions In A South Louisiana Bayou Community, Susan Camille Manning Jan 2005

Riding Out The Risks: An Ethnographic Study Of Risk Perceptions In A South Louisiana Bayou Community, Susan Camille Manning

LSU Master's Theses

This ethnographic study explores the risk perceptions of a small unincorporated coastal community in southeastern Louisiana. This community has experienced social and environmental change due to events including tropical storms and hurricanes, erosion, subsidence, oil and gas activities, development, and the impact of global seafood markets. Many global risk perception studies have focused on the perception of risk to human health and property connected with natural and technological disasters, but few have explored the issue of minorities and small at-risk communities. To explore this theoretical and methodological gap, this study uses a variety of qualitative ethnographic methods to examine a …

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Belowground Productivity Of Mangrove Forests In Southwest Florida, Beatriz Eugenia Giraldo Sánchez Jan 2005

Belowground Productivity Of Mangrove Forests In Southwest Florida, Beatriz Eugenia Giraldo Sánchez

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Studies in belowground dynamics are limited mainly due to the difficulty of studying roots despite wide recognition of its importance. This dissertation focused on methods for analyzing mangrove roots, root responses to phosphorus and flooding, and variation in root production between forest types. Techniques to separate live and dead roots such as colorimetric, fluorescence, buoyancy, and visual assessment were compared. The traditional method of visual assessment combined with root buoyancy was accurate, fast, and applicable to larger samples. Additionally, techniques such as rhizotrons, root ingrowth cores, and root image analysis were useful to study mangrove roots. Root and litter production, …

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Associations Of Avian And Herpetofauna Communities With Forest Management At Multiple Spatial Scales, Holly Grace Legrand Jan 2005

Associations Of Avian And Herpetofauna Communities With Forest Management At Multiple Spatial Scales, Holly Grace Legrand

LSU Master's Theses

Decline of amphibians, reptiles, and numerous Neotropical migrant birds has been attributed to habitat destruction and alteration, which warrants examination of these groups in managed forests and their association with habitat characteristics at multiple spatial scales. We surveyed avifauna and herpetofauna communities in 3 managed forests in Louisiana during 2003-2004. Study areas included Sherburne Wildlife Management Area (WMA), a bottomland hardwood forest under uneven-aged management, Ben’s Creek WMA, an even-aged, short-rotation loblolly pine plantation, and Sandy Hollow WMA, a longleaf pine-savannah maintained with prescribed fire. Field techniques included surveys consisting of avian point counts, drift fence arrays (PFFT), cover boards, …

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Putting Down Roots In Environmental Literacy: A Study Of Middle School Students' Participation In Louisiana Sea Grant's Coastal Roots Project, Rachel L. Somers Jan 2005

Putting Down Roots In Environmental Literacy: A Study Of Middle School Students' Participation In Louisiana Sea Grant's Coastal Roots Project, Rachel L. Somers

LSU Master's Theses

Few people realize that in Louisiana land is lost to open water at about a rate of 24 square miles a year, faster than anywhere else in the world (Barras, Beville, Britsch, Hartley, Hawes, Jonston, Kemp, Kinler, Martucci, Porthouse, Reed, Roy, Sapkota, & Suhayda, 2003). Not only is the public low to moderately environmentally literate, there is a need to reach students early on to ensure the greatest benefit. This is the main reason why Louisiana Sea Grant¡¦s Coastal Roots Wetland Seedling Nursery Project (Coastal Roots) came into inception. The goal of the project is to improve environmental literacy of …

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Common Sense Philosophy And Politics In America: John Witherspoon, James Mccosh, And William James, Scott Philip Segrest Jan 2005

Common Sense Philosophy And Politics In America: John Witherspoon, James Mccosh, And William James, Scott Philip Segrest

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation examines the political significance of the two leading strains of common sense thought in the history of American philosophy—Scottish Common Sense and Pragmatism—as suggested in the writings of John Witherspoon and James McCosh in the Scottish Common Sense line, and of the more famous co-founder of Pragmatism, William James. These two strains of American common sense are placed in context of the larger Western common sense tradition. Each is shown to aim at finding a solid middle ground epistemologically between skeptical doubt and idealistic certitude that could serve as a stable basis for moral and political life. Witherspoon, …

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Molluscan Taphonomy As A Proxy For Recognizing Fossil Seagrass Beds, Jill Suzanne Leonard-Pingel Jan 2005

Molluscan Taphonomy As A Proxy For Recognizing Fossil Seagrass Beds, Jill Suzanne Leonard-Pingel

LSU Master's Theses

Seagrass beds, important marine ecosystems both economically and environmentally, have a poor fossil record. As a result, little is known about the geographic distribution of seagrasses over historic and geologic time, or their abundance when unaltered by anthropogenic effects. The purpose of this study is to define a taphonomic signature unique to seagrass beds that can be used as a proxy for identifying the seagrass habitat in the fossil record. In order to develop this proxy, sediment samples from Recent seagrass and non-seagrass environments were collected, and the molluscan bioclasts from these samples were categorically ranked for the following taphonomic …

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Designing Online Instruction For Postsecondary Students With Learning Disabilities, Andrew Patrick Simoncelli Jan 2005

Designing Online Instruction For Postsecondary Students With Learning Disabilities, Andrew Patrick Simoncelli

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This case study investigates the methodologies used to deliver online course content to postsecondary students with varying learning disabilities. The research provides a holistic picture of the students in their actual learning environment. Two college students diagnosed as learning disabled were studied with three non-disabled classmates in an online college learning environment. The purpose was to attempt to explain how the design of the course affects the students’ attitudes and performance. The design of the course featured instructional methods that research has shown to be beneficial to students with learning disabilities. Some of these included digitally delivered instructional audio, various …

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Growth Of A Slash Pine Spacing Study Five Years After Thinning, Jamie Camille Schexnayder Jan 2005

Growth Of A Slash Pine Spacing Study Five Years After Thinning, Jamie Camille Schexnayder

LSU Master's Theses

In 1994, a 17 yr old, slash pine spacing study was thinned to 35% of the maximum stand density to evaluate the influence of prethinning stand conditions on postthinning growth after thinning to a common stand density. It was expected that plots thinned to a common growing stock level should have equal growth increments and if growth was not equal then the difference was related to prethinning stand conditions. Stand growth variables of quadratic mean diameter increment, stand-level basal area increment, and gross-volume increment were evaluated to determine the influence of initial spacing, stand density, and prethinning crown size before …

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Musculoskeletal Disorders In Dentistry, Frank Maurice Pitts Jan 2005

Musculoskeletal Disorders In Dentistry, Frank Maurice Pitts

LSU Master's Theses

Because of the common occurrence of pain experienced by dental professionals during the course of a workday and throughout their career, an epidemiological and a field study were performed in an effort to contribute to the prevention of musculoskeletal disorders in dentistry. The aim of the thesis is two fold: to assess the perception of occupational pain and discomfort felt by dentists through a perception based survey and to assess the muscle behavior of dentists during isotonic postures while performing various dental procedures on their first and last patients in a given work day. One hundred (100) dentists participated in …

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Modeling The Flow Of Non-Newtonian Fluids In Packed Beds At The Pore Scale, Matthew Balhoff Jan 2005

Modeling The Flow Of Non-Newtonian Fluids In Packed Beds At The Pore Scale, Matthew Balhoff

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Flow and transport in porous media are important in many science and engineering applications such as composite materials, subsurface water contamination, packed-bed reactors, and enhanced oil recovery. The general approach to modeling such processes is at the continuum scale. Semi-empirical expressions, such as Darcy's law, are substituted for velocity in the continuity equation, which is then coupled with a momentum, mass, and energy balance. While a continuum approach is acceptable in some cases, additional modeling is required for certain non-linear flows, such as multi-phase flows, inertial flows, non-Newtonian flows, and reactive flows. Pore-scale modeling is a first-principles approach to modeling …

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Laguerre Functions Associated To Euclidean Jordan Algebras, Michael Aristidou Jan 2005

Laguerre Functions Associated To Euclidean Jordan Algebras, Michael Aristidou

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Certain differential recursion relations for the Laguerre functions, defined on a symmetric cone Ω, can be derived from the representations of a specific Lie algebra on L2(Ω,dμv). This Lie algebra is the corresponding Lie algebra of the Lie group G that acts on the tube domain T(Ω)=Ω+iV, where V is the associated Euclidean Jordan algebra of Ω. The representations involved are the highest weight representations of G on L2(Ω,dμv). To obtain these representations, we start from the highest weight representations of G on Hv(T(Ω)), the Hilbert space of holomorphic functions …

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