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2005

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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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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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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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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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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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An Application Of Parallel Computation To Collaborative Optimization, Shahab Nayyer Jan 2005

An Application Of Parallel Computation To Collaborative Optimization, Shahab Nayyer

LSU Master's Theses

Multidisciplinary Design Optimization (MDO) has evolved as a discipline which provides a body of methods and techniques to assist engineers in solving large scale design problems. There are many frameworks for formulating MDO problems. These frameworks can be broadly classified as single-level or bi-level formulations. Collaborative Optimization (CO) is one of the popular bi-level formulations to solve an MDO problem. There are numerous design optimization problems which are highly CPU time intensive and require a long simulation time. With the advent of cheaper and faster available PC’s, distributed parallel computer clusters have become very popular. These clusters provide large computing …

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Environmental Benefits Realized From Eradication Of The Non-Indigenous Insect Anthonomus Grandis Boheman, The Cotton Boll Weevil, Marc Stephen Bordelon Jan 2005

Environmental Benefits Realized From Eradication Of The Non-Indigenous Insect Anthonomus Grandis Boheman, The Cotton Boll Weevil, Marc Stephen Bordelon

LSU Master's Theses

At least one third of the insecticide used in agriculture has been used to control the boll weevil in cotton. Historically, these insecticides have been toxic to humans and harsh on the environment. In addition, the intensive use of chemical insecticides to control the boll weevil results in the disruption of naturally occurring biological control factors that regulate other insect pest populations causing a chain reaction of secondary pest populations that require treatment followed by resurgence and repeat treatment. This situation has resulted in the development of resistance to insecticides, high control costs and unacceptable levels of chemical insecticide contamination …

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Simulation Study Of Routing Protocols In Wireless Sensor Networks, Vatsalya Kunchakarra Jan 2005

Simulation Study Of Routing Protocols In Wireless Sensor Networks, Vatsalya Kunchakarra

LSU Master's Theses

Wireless sensor networks, a distributed network of sensor nodes perform critical tasks in many application areas such as target tracking in military applications, detection of catastrophic events, environment monitoring, health applications etc. The routing protocols developed for these distributed sensor networks need to be energy efficient and scalable. To create a better understanding of the performance of various routing protocols proposed it is very important to perform a detailed analysis of them. Network simulators enable us to study the performance and behavior of these protocols on various network topologies. Many Sensor Network frameworks were developed to explore both the networking …

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Comparative Study Of The Physical And Mechanistic Properties Of Hma Mixture: Field Vs Laboratory, Chenggang Zhang Jan 2005

Comparative Study Of The Physical And Mechanistic Properties Of Hma Mixture: Field Vs Laboratory, Chenggang Zhang

LSU Master's Theses

The objectives of this study were to investigate the variability in the physical and mechanistic properties of HMA due to production, characterize and compare the mechanistic properties of roadway cores and laboratory compacted samples, develop the relationship between modulus from in situ NDT and those obtained from laboratory tests on roadway cores, and compare air voids measurements between laboratory and field test methods. Six ongoing rehabilitation projects in Louisiana were selected, in each of which several test sections were tested. Comparative analyses were conducted on density measurements between two laboratory (AASHTO T-166 and ASTM D6752-02, or Vacuum sealing) and one …

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Thermal Management Of The Lsu Micro Gas Chromatograph, Praveen K. Pasupuleti Jan 2005

Thermal Management Of The Lsu Micro Gas Chromatograph, Praveen K. Pasupuleti

LSU Master's Theses

Gas chromatography is a technique widely used for the separation and analysis of gas samples. Gas chromatographs are used for environmental maintenance, monitoring sophisticated biological analyses, and to separate components from a mixture of gases for mass spectrometer analysis. There has been a tremendous interest in miniaturization of gas chromatograph systems because of the potential for portability, faster response time, lower dead volume, lower power consumption, and lower cost of operation. Conventional gas chromatography keeps the column at a constant temperature during separation, which is called isothermal analysis. Temperature programming is a mode of gas chromatography in which the column …

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Nutrient Interactions, Plant Productivity, Soil Accretion, And Policy Implications Of Wetland Enhancements In Coastal Louisiana, Christopher Brantley Jan 2005

Nutrient Interactions, Plant Productivity, Soil Accretion, And Policy Implications Of Wetland Enhancements In Coastal Louisiana, Christopher Brantley

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Ecosystem response, stakeholder interactions, and the policy implications to a wetland assimilation project are reported here for the City of Mandeville, St. Tammany Parish, Louisiana. Between September 1998 and October 2004, input of secondarily treated wastewater effluent was found to have a net positive effect on the downstream wetland receiving basin. The major hydrologic inputs to the system are the effluent, precipitation, and back water flooding from Lake Pontchartrain. Nutrient levels were generally low except in the immediate vicinity of the outfall and removal efficiencies of N and P ranged from 44% to 87% and 25% to 93%, respectively. On …

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Using Ground Penetrating Radar, Light Detection And Ranging, Geodetic Leveling, And Area Hydrogeology To Study The Baton Rouge And Scotlandville Faults, East Baton Rouge Parish, La, Angela Mooi Thomas Jan 2005

Using Ground Penetrating Radar, Light Detection And Ranging, Geodetic Leveling, And Area Hydrogeology To Study The Baton Rouge And Scotlandville Faults, East Baton Rouge Parish, La, Angela Mooi Thomas

LSU Master's Theses

East Baton Rouge Parish, Louisiana, is situated on at least two faults, the Baton Rouge Fault and the Denham Springs-Scotlandville Fault. These faults have surface expressions in the form of escarpments and damage to man-made structures. The purpose of this thesis is to study these faults in the shallow subsurface, in climate and soils found in Louisiana, and to study their ability to block fluid flow and whether groundwater withdrawal influences the amount and rate of subsidence along these faults. Techniques used to gather field data or to research and compile previously acquired data for this thesis includes: Ground Penetrating …

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Energy-Rate Based Mac Protocol For Wireless Sensor Networks And Key Pre-Distribution Schemes, Ramaraju Kalidindi Jan 2005

Energy-Rate Based Mac Protocol For Wireless Sensor Networks And Key Pre-Distribution Schemes, Ramaraju Kalidindi

LSU Master's Theses

Sensor networks are typically unattended because of their deployment in hazardous, hostile or remote environments. This makes the problem of conserving energy at individual sensor nodes challenging. S-MAC and PAMAS are two MAC protocols which periodically put nodes (selected at random) to sleep in order to achieve energy savings. Unlike these protocols, we propose an approach in which node duty cycles (i.e sleep and wake schedules) are based on their criticality. A distributed algorithm is used to find sets of winners and losers, who are then assigned appropriate slots in our TDMA based MAC protocol. We introduce the concept of …

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Identifying Asphalt Construction As A Point Source Emitter Of Volatile Organic Compounds Near The Louisiana State University Ozone Monitoring Station, Sean Jason Kice Jan 2005

Identifying Asphalt Construction As A Point Source Emitter Of Volatile Organic Compounds Near The Louisiana State University Ozone Monitoring Station, Sean Jason Kice

LSU Master's Theses

The EPA has classified Baton Rouge as a non-attainment area for ozone pollution for many years. Since then Photochemical Assessment Monitoring Stations (PAMS) and other ozone monitoring stations around the metropolitan area have monitored for ozone, NOx, and more than 50 volatile organic compounds (VOCs) which are considered precursors to ozone pollution. Traditionally, automobile engines and industrial plants and refineries have been blamed as major point sources for VOC emissions and the ozone pollution they cause. This research focuses on another possible point source for failing ozone levels at one of the ozone monitoring stations located on the campus of …

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Visualization Based On Interactive Clipping: Application To Confocal Data, Gaurav Khanduja Jan 2005

Visualization Based On Interactive Clipping: Application To Confocal Data, Gaurav Khanduja

LSU Master's Theses

We have explored how clipping can be exploited in an interactive manner to visualize massive three-dimensional datasets. In essence, the proposed interactive clipping approach involves the dynamic adjustment of the clipping plane to expose any cross-section of the volume data and subsequent adjustment of the clipped surface to the best view position using a combination of rotation and translation. The thesis describes the design, implementation and application of our interactive-clipping-based visualization system. The implementation is done with OpenGL and C++, thus resulting in a highly portable and flexible system. For illustration, two types of scientific datasets, confocal data of a …

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Effects Of Adding Sediment To A Fresh Water Thin Mat Floating Marsh, Kate Carpenter Jan 2005

Effects Of Adding Sediment To A Fresh Water Thin Mat Floating Marsh, Kate Carpenter

LSU Master's Theses

Floating marshes are wetlands of emergent vascular vegetation which have a significant mat of live and dead roots, decomposing and dead organic material, and mineral sediments. This mat moves vertically as ambient water levels rise and fall. These marshes have unique hydrology in that overland sheet flow is reduced or eliminated leaving no inorganic sediment input, but there is extensive belowground water exchange. The effect of significant sediment introduction into wetlands with floating marshes is unknown. The purpose of this study was to observe the marsh mat response to Mississippi River sediment addition and measure species composition change and growth …

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A Study Of Distributed Clustering Of Vector Time Series On The Grid By Task Farming, Arun B. Nayar Jan 2005

A Study Of Distributed Clustering Of Vector Time Series On The Grid By Task Farming, Arun B. Nayar

LSU Master's Theses

Traditional data mining methods were limited by availability of computing resources like network bandwidth, storage space and processing power. These algorithms were developed to work around this problem by looking at a small cross-section of the whole data available. However since a major chunk of the data is kept out, the predictions were generally inaccurate and missed out on significant features that was part of the data. Today with resources growing at almost the same pace as data, it is possible to rethink mining algorithms to work on distributed resources and essentially distributed data. Distributed data mining thus holds great …

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Platform Recruited Reef Fish, Phase I: Do Platforms Provide Habitat That Increase The Survival Of Juvenile Reef Fishes?, Lauren Kay Nowling Jan 2005

Platform Recruited Reef Fish, Phase I: Do Platforms Provide Habitat That Increase The Survival Of Juvenile Reef Fishes?, Lauren Kay Nowling

LSU Master's Theses

There are currently over 4000 functioning oil and gas platforms in the northern Gulf of Mexico (Gulf). Platform operations, and their prior drilling operations, produce trace amounts of lead, barium, vanadium, and lanthanum residues that are leached into the surrounding waters and are deposited on the sea floor. These residues have isotopic ratios different from those typical of the Gulf seafloor and can be used as harmless ‘fingerprints’ if they become incorporated into hard-parts or tissues in fishes associated with oil and gas platforms. From 2002 to 2004, 115 red snapper were collected from oil and gas platforms and artificial …

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Nekton Utilization Of Black Mangrove (Avicennia Germinans) And Smooth Cordgrass (Spartina Alterniflora) Sites In Southwestern Caminada Bay, Louisiana, Melanie Christine Caudill Jan 2005

Nekton Utilization Of Black Mangrove (Avicennia Germinans) And Smooth Cordgrass (Spartina Alterniflora) Sites In Southwestern Caminada Bay, Louisiana, Melanie Christine Caudill

LSU Master's Theses

This is the first study to compare nekton use and habitat value among Spartina alterniflora (Spartina), Avicennia germinans (black mangrove), and transition (S. alterniflora and A. germinans) sites within Louisiana's salt marsh-mangrove ecotone. Fishes and crustaceans were collected in Caminada Bay during fall 2003 and spring 2004 using 4 m2, bottomless lift nets. Although analyses were unable to demonstrate significant differences in fish (p=0.0753) and crustacean (p=0.1457) densities and species composition (p=0.8801) across sites, habitat-specific trends in nekton use were evident. Fishes, including gulf killifish and sheepshead minnows, showed affinities for the Spartina site, while crustaceans, especially white shrimp, were …

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Cognitive Memory Effects On Non-Linear Video-Based Learning, Katherine Renee Comeaux Jan 2005

Cognitive Memory Effects On Non-Linear Video-Based Learning, Katherine Renee Comeaux

LSU Master's Theses

During an informative learning process, information, material, facts and ideas are typically conveyed in a linear arrangement. Individuals are frequently distracted during this process with their attention being diverted to an interruption (Internet, phone call, etc). When presented with any new information, the mind evolves through problem solving and evaluation procedures. The way in which that information is processed and perceived depends on: (a) original presentation (b) examination of material and (c) an individualistic measurement of success. However, when faced with an interruption, the person is forced to deal with non-linear arrangement of information. This research investigates nonlinear presentation or …

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Remote Power Delivery For Hybrid Integrated Bio-Implantable Electrical Stimulation System, Venkat Reddy Gaddam Jan 2005

Remote Power Delivery For Hybrid Integrated Bio-Implantable Electrical Stimulation System, Venkat Reddy Gaddam

LSU Master's Theses

Bio-implantable devices such as heart pacers, gastric pacers and drug-delivery systems require power for carrying out their intended functions. These devices are usually powered through a battery implanted with the system or are wired to an external power source. In this work, a remote power delivery system (RPDS) is considered as a means to charge rechargeable batteries that power a Bio-implanted Electrical Stimulation System (BESS). A loosely coupled inductive power transmitter and receiver system has been designed to recharge batteries for a bio-implanted gastric pacer. The transmitter coil is periodically worn around the waist. The receiver coil, rechargeable batteries, battery-charging …

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Mathematical Models For Estimating Volatile Chemical Emissions From Dredging Operations, Kenneth Alexander Fountain Jan 2005

Mathematical Models For Estimating Volatile Chemical Emissions From Dredging Operations, Kenneth Alexander Fountain

LSU Master's Theses

Dredging operations have been a common remediation for contaminated sediment in an effort to reduce the harmful impact on the environment. The objective of this research was to create models used for estimating chemical release to air from remediating the Indiana Harbor and Canal (IHC) as three separate dredging operations; the Dredge Site, Exposed DM CDF, and Ponded CDF. The evaporative flux estimations are based on a two-resistance mass transport path inclusive of both the molecular diffusion in porous media and interfacial airside mass transport resistances. Several chemodynamic algorithms were used in calculating key transport parameters. Laboratory tests were performed …

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Sensorsimulator: Simulation Framework For Sensor Networks, Cariappa D. Mallanda Jan 2005

Sensorsimulator: Simulation Framework For Sensor Networks, Cariappa D. Mallanda

LSU Master's Theses

Wireless sensor networks have the potential to become significant subsystems of engineering applications. Before relegating important and safety-critical tasks to such subsystems, it is necessary to understand the dynamic behavior of these subsystems in simulation environments. There is an urgent need to develop a simulation platform that is useful to explore both the networking issues and the distributed computing aspects of wireless sensor networks. Current approaches to simulating wireless sensor networks largely focus on the networking issues. These approaches use well-known network simulation tools that are often difficult to extend to explore distributed computing issues. Discrete-event simulation is a trusted …

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Naturally-Derived Porphyrin And Chlorin Photosensitizers For Photodynamic Therapy, Jodie Angela Hargus Jan 2005

Naturally-Derived Porphyrin And Chlorin Photosensitizers For Photodynamic Therapy, Jodie Angela Hargus

LSU Master's Theses

In oncologic applications of photodynamic therapy (PDT), the discriminating localization of porphyrin-type compounds in solid tumors is exploited for the selective ablation of neoplastic tissue with minimal destruction and irritation to normal tissue. PDT is a locoregional, binary cancer therapy in which a photosensitizer—light-activated drug—absorbs light of an appropriate wavelength and excites to the singlet state. This photosensitizer in the excited singlet state can undergo an internal transition to the excited triplet state, a relatively long-lived and high-energy species that transfers its excess energy to molecular oxygen. Molecular oxygen subsequently excites from the stable triplet state to the highly reactive …

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Restoration Success Of Backfilling Canals In Coastal Louisiana Marshes, Joseph Baustian Jan 2005

Restoration Success Of Backfilling Canals In Coastal Louisiana Marshes, Joseph Baustian

LSU Master's Theses

The need for effective marsh restoration techniques in Louisiana is a pressing issue as the state continues to lose coastal wetlands. Returning spoil banks to canals, known as "backfilling", is an attractive restoration option because it restores marsh, prevents future wetland loss, and is cost effective. The direct conversion of marsh to canals and spoil banks accounted for over 22% of Louisiana's wetland loss from 1930 to 1990, and the indirect losses associated with canal dredging are even larger. The restoration success of 30 canals, backfilled twenty years ago, was examined in this study and compared to restoration success shortly …

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Liquid Architectures: Marcos Novak's Territory Of Information, Camile A. Silva Jan 2005

Liquid Architectures: Marcos Novak's Territory Of Information, Camile A. Silva

LSU Master's Theses

The idea of interactivity between humans and their environment no longer represents the only way of exploring new experiences. Equally passé is the idea that information constitutes the means for this interaction. However, this paper presents that the contemporary idea for interaction has embraced new understandings of the content of experience and the structure of space. New electronic technologies and advanced digital media have separated realities from the realm of the body and transformed experiences into a ubiquitous event. The architectural discourse, that once has been largely a discourse of form and style, has finally overcome those limitations and has …

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Reciprocal Peer Tutoring And Treatment Integrity Of Elementary School Students, Brian M. Esteve Jan 2005

Reciprocal Peer Tutoring And Treatment Integrity Of Elementary School Students, Brian M. Esteve

LSU Master's Theses

Academic concerns are the most common reason students are referred for special services in schools. This obviously leads to the necessity for schools to have secondary prevention services in place to address the needs of students who are struggling. Peer tutoring, in its various forms, has been well documented as an effective and inexpensive intervention for all academic areas. Despite the promise of peer tutoring, research evidence suggests that teachers may not consistently carry out their roles in the peer tutoring process with sufficient accuracy to ensure positive outcomes. One possible solution to this problem is to have a consultant …

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