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

Digital Commons Network™

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

2009

Discipline
Institution
Keyword
Publication
Publication Type
File Type

Articles 13801 - 13830 of 14007

Full-Text Articles in Entire DC Network

Optimising The Synthesis And Red–Green–Blue Emission Of A Simple Organic Dye, Martha Sibrian-Vazquez, Robert M. Strongin Jan 2009

Optimising The Synthesis And Red–Green–Blue Emission Of A Simple Organic Dye, Martha Sibrian-Vazquez, Robert M. Strongin

Chemistry Faculty Publications and Presentations

Synthetic dyes have been widely used in supramolecular chemistry not only to probe fundamental chemical interactions but also as components of functional materials. Most current efforts in this regard are directed at designing new host systems for the dyes. Herein we report on the study of a versatile new organic fluorophore. We describe a synthesis which affords improved yields in a convenient one pot procedure. Moreover, a simple method for predicting and controlling the dye’s responses to external stimuli affords a potentially practical method for achieving red–green–blue and concomitant white light generation.

Go to article

Secure Distributed Detection In Wireless Sensor Networks Via Encryption Of Sensor Decisions, Venkata Sriram Siddhardh Nadendla Jan 2009

Secure Distributed Detection In Wireless Sensor Networks Via Encryption Of Sensor Decisions, Venkata Sriram Siddhardh Nadendla

LSU Master's Theses

We consider the problem of binary hypothesis testing using a distributed wireless sensor network. Identical binary quantizers are used on the sensor's observations and the outputs are encrypted using a probabilistic cipher. The third party (enemy) fusion centers are unaware of the presence of the probabilistic encipher. We find the optimal (minimum-probability-of-error) fusion rule for the ally (friendly) fusion center subject to a lower bound on the the probability of error for the third-party fusion centers. To obtain the minimum probability of error, we first prove the quasi-convexity of error probability with respect to the sensor's threshold for a given …

Go to article

Homological Width And Turaev Genus, Adam Lowrance Jan 2009

Homological Width And Turaev Genus, Adam Lowrance

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Khovanov homology and knot Floer homology are generalizations of the Jones polynomial and the Alexander polynomial respectively. They are bigraded Z-modules, and their underlying polynomials are recovered by taking the graded Euler characteristic. The two homologies share many characteristics, however their relationship has yet to be fully understood. In both Khovanov homology and knot Floer homology, the two gradings can be combined into a single diagonal grading. Homological width is a measure of the support of the homology with respect to the diagonal grading. In this thesis, we show that the homological width of Khovanov homology and knot Floer homology …

Go to article

Methods And Design Issues For Next Generation Network-Aware Applications, Andrei Hutanu Jan 2009

Methods And Design Issues For Next Generation Network-Aware Applications, Andrei Hutanu

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Networks are becoming an essential component of modern cyberinfrastructure and this work describes methods of designing distributed applications for high-speed networks to improve application scalability, performance and capabilities. As the amount of data generated by scientific applications continues to grow, to be able to handle and process it, applications should be designed to use parallel, distributed resources and high-speed networks. For scalable application design developers should move away from the current component-based approach and implement instead an integrated, non-layered architecture where applications can use specialized low-level interfaces. The main focus of this research is on interactive, collaborative visualization of large …

Go to article

La Storia Del Gatto Che Era Sia Vivo Che Morto, Valia Allori Jan 2009

La Storia Del Gatto Che Era Sia Vivo Che Morto, Valia Allori

Faculty Articles, Papers, and Other Scholarship

Questa è la breve storia , forse un poco romanzata, del gatto che, se non forse il più citato, è di sicuro il più bistrattato della storia della fisica e della filosofia: il gatto di Schrödinger.

Go to article

Beyond Mediation: Thinking The Computer Otherwise, David J. Gunkel Jan 2009

Beyond Mediation: Thinking The Computer Otherwise, David J. Gunkel

Faculty Articles, Papers, and Other Scholarship

Whatever Media Studies 2.0 involves, one thing is certain, there is a need to confront and deal with new technologies, most notably computers and computer networks. Despite the fact that the discipline has largely marginalized these innovations, there has been some effort to incorporate the computer into both the theories and practices of media studies. This has been accomplished, at least in the United States, through the development of what is now called computer-mediated communication (CMC). CMC, which effectively understands the computer as a medium of human communication, does not necessarily institute a significant paradigm shift in media studies but …

Go to article

Glacial Deposits, Vol. 37, 2008-2009, Department Of Geography-Geology Jan 2009

Glacial Deposits, Vol. 37, 2008-2009, Department Of Geography-Geology

Glacial Deposits

Newsletter of the Department of Geography-Geology

Go to article

Achiral, Chiral, And Protein Separations With Molecular Micelles Using Chromatographic Techniques, Candace Ayanna Luces Jan 2009

Achiral, Chiral, And Protein Separations With Molecular Micelles Using Chromatographic Techniques, Candace Ayanna Luces

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

In this dissertation, several chromatographic techniques were developed for separation of proteins as well as achiral and chiral compounds. Firstly, polyelectrolyte multilayer (PEM) coatings were used to separate chiral analytes and proteins of pharmaceutical and biomedical interests. Coating polymers used in PEM coatings are instrumental in analyte separation. Therefore, the effect of changing four different cationic polymers, (poly-L-lysine, poly-L-ornithine, poly-L-lysine-serine, and poly-L-glutamic acid-lysine) and three anionic polymers (sodium poly (N-undecanoyl-L-leucyl-alaninate) (poly-L-SULA), sodium poly (N-undecanoyl-L-leucyl-valinate) (poly-L-SULV) and sodium poly (undecylenic sulfate) (poly-SUS)) were investigated. The simultaneous effects of cationic polymer concentration, number of bilayers, temperature, applied voltage, and pH of the …

Go to article

A Sequential Bayesian Approach For Hydrologic Model Selection And Prediction, Kuo-Lin Hsu, Hamid Moradkhani, Soroosh Sorooshian Jan 2009

A Sequential Bayesian Approach For Hydrologic Model Selection And Prediction, Kuo-Lin Hsu, Hamid Moradkhani, Soroosh Sorooshian

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

When a single model is used for hydrologic prediction, it must be capable of estimating system behavior accurately at all times. Multiple-model approaches integrate several model behaviors and, when effective, they can provide better estimates than that of any single model alone. This paper discusses a sequential model fusion strategy that uses the Bayes rule. This approach calculates each model's transient posterior distribution at each time when a new observation is available and merges all model estimates on the basis of each model's posterior probability. This paper demonstrates the feasibility of this approach through case studies that fuse three hydrologic …

Go to article

Bilateral Filter In Image Processing, Ming Zhang Jan 2009

Bilateral Filter In Image Processing, Ming Zhang

LSU Master's Theses

The bilateral filter is a nonlinear filter that does spatial averaging without smoothing edges. It has shown to be an effective image denoising technique. It also can be applied to the blocking artifacts reduction. An important issue with the application of the bilateral filter is the selection of the filter parameters, which affect the results significantly. Another research interest of bilateral filter is acceleration of the computation speed. There are three main contributions of this thesis. The first contribution is an empirical study of the optimal bilateral filter parameter selection in image denoising. I propose an extension of the bilateral …

Go to article

Computational Studies On Fatty Acid Synthesis: From Mechanisms To Drug Design, Matthew Edward Mckenzie Jan 2009

Computational Studies On Fatty Acid Synthesis: From Mechanisms To Drug Design, Matthew Edward Mckenzie

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The first committed steps of the Fatty Acid synthesis pathway involves the de/carboxylation reactions of biotin. By understanding this step, potential novel antimicrobial agents could be discovered. The current tools of drug discovery can only help the research in finding and modifying potential hits. Finding a lead candidate from these programs are often equated to finding a needle in a haystack, which is due to the many assumptions used in molecular docking. The fundamental reaction kinetics can not be described by these techniques and a detailed study of the decarboxylation reaction is investigated using ab initio molecular dynamics. In this …

Go to article

Feedback Between Residual Circulations And Sediment Distribution In Highly Turbid Estuaries: An Analytical Model, Stefan A. Talke, Huib E. De Swart, H. M. Schuttelaars Jan 2009

Feedback Between Residual Circulations And Sediment Distribution In Highly Turbid Estuaries: An Analytical Model, Stefan A. Talke, Huib E. De Swart, H. M. Schuttelaars

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Motivated by field studies of the Ems estuary which show longitudinal gradients in bottom sediment concentration as high as O(0.01 kg/m4), we develop an analytical model for estuarine residual circulation based on currents from salinity gradients, turbidity gradients, and freshwater discharge. Salinity is assumed to be vertically well mixed, while the vertical concentration profile is assumed to result from a balance between a constant settling velocity and turbulent diffusive flux. Width and depth of the model estuary are held constant. Model results show that turbidity gradients enhance tidally averaged circulation upstream of the estuarine turbidity maximum (ETM), …

Go to article

Herminie A Performer's Guide To Hector Berlioz's Prix De Rome Cantata, Rosella Lucille Ewing Jan 2009

Herminie A Performer's Guide To Hector Berlioz's Prix De Rome Cantata, Rosella Lucille Ewing

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Herminie (1828) is a secular cantata which Hector Berlioz composed for the Prix de Rome competition on a libretto by Pierre-Ange Vieillard de Boismartin. This document begins by placing the composition of Herminie within the biographical context of Berlioz’s life and musical output. It outlines the early education of Berlioz and discusses significant individuals and events which influenced his compositional style, as well as the rules, prizes, and expectations of the Prix de Rome competition. A discussion of the cantata libretto follows, including a comparison with the source of the text, the poem Gerusalemme liberata. Included in this discussion is …

Go to article

Topics In Quantum Optical Metrology, Aravind Chiruvelli Jan 2009

Topics In Quantum Optical Metrology, Aravind Chiruvelli

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Quantum optical metrology deals with estimation of an unknown parameter by exploiting the non-classical properties of the light. The unknown parameter that we are trying to estimate is the optical phase. Precise optical phase measurement has been a well-known problem and has many applications, most notably the gravitational wave detection. In this thesis we investigate the interferometric measurement schemes. We consider the parity detection for a class of input states that have been shown to exhibit sub-shot noise limited phase estimate with their respective detection schemes. Our results indicate that the parity detection applies to all these strategies with various …

Go to article

A Study Of The Self-Assembly Of Water-Soluble Porphyrins In Aqueous Solution, Javoris Hollingsworth Jan 2009

A Study Of The Self-Assembly Of Water-Soluble Porphyrins In Aqueous Solution, Javoris Hollingsworth

LSU Master's Theses

In nature, self-assembly processes of biologically active organic molecules often occur, resulting in formation of dimers and higher oligomers of various and sometimes complex structures. This natural occurrence of self-organization has been the subject of research, with the aim of understanding and possibly modulating the aggregation behavior of biological molecules. The meso-tetrakis(4-phosphonatophenyl) porphyrin, H2TPPP was synthesized, purified, and characterized. Its self-assembly was studied in aqueous solutions as a function of pH and time. The variations on the λmax and shape of the Soret band of this porphyrin in the absorption spectra when altering the pH indicated the pH dependency in …

Go to article

The Potential Contribution Of Organic Salts To New Particle Growth, Kelley Barsanti, Peter H. Mcmurry, J. N. Smith Jan 2009

The Potential Contribution Of Organic Salts To New Particle Growth, Kelley Barsanti, Peter H. Mcmurry, J. N. Smith

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Field and lab measurements suggest that low-molecular weight (MW) organic acids and bases exist in accumulation and nucleation mode particles, despite their relatively high pure-liquid vapor pressures. The mechanism(s) by which such compounds contribute to the mass growth of existing aerosol particles and newly formed particles has not been thoroughly explored. One mechanism by which low- MW compounds may contribute to new particle growth is through the formation of organic salts. In this paper we use thermodynamic modeling to explore the potential for organic salt formation by atmospherically relevant organic acids and bases for two system types: one in which …

Go to article

The Effects Of Being Placed In Special Education Classes Versus General Education Classes And Teacher Certification On Students' High-Stakes Testing Scores, Bethany Ann Porter Jan 2009

The Effects Of Being Placed In Special Education Classes Versus General Education Classes And Teacher Certification On Students' High-Stakes Testing Scores, Bethany Ann Porter

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The introduction of new laws such as the amendments to the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA, 1997) and the No Child Left Behind Act have changed education for special education students in the United States. Students with disabilities are now more frequently being held to the same standards as those students without disabilities. These federal laws are designed to help close the achievement gap among all students regardless of race, gender, poverty, or disability status. Special education students are now required to participate in statewide high-stakes testing programs alongside their nondisabled peers. Another movement involves including students with disabilities …

Go to article

Translocation Success Of Adult Red-Cockaded Woodpeckers, Erin Herbez Jan 2009

Translocation Success Of Adult Red-Cockaded Woodpeckers, Erin Herbez

LSU Master's Theses

The red-cockaded woodpecker (Picoides borealis; hereafter RCW) is a cooperative breeder endemic to open old-growth pine savannah ecosystems in the southeastern United States (Jackson 1994). The RCW was listed as federally endangered in 1973, after a population decline due to habitat loss. Habitat fragmentation produces isolated populations of RCWs, which in turn ultimately limits the success of the species. RCW biologists and managers counteract effects of fragmentation by aggregating recruitment clusters and translocation. Although several studies examined subadult RCW translocation, detailed studies examining adult translocation have been limited. My study was conducted on a 3500 ha area owned by Plum …

Go to article

Characterization And Transitions Of Asphalt Cement Composite Materials, Brent Harper Sellers Jan 2009

Characterization And Transitions Of Asphalt Cement Composite Materials, Brent Harper Sellers

LSU Master's Theses

Blends of a PG 64-22 asphalt with a range of load levels (0.2 — 20 wt %) of Sasobit® wax and a single loading of 2 wt % Elvaloy AM® were prepared and characterized. Sasobit® wax is a high molecular weight paraffinic wax produced commercially through the Fischer-Tropsch process. Elvaloy AM® is a reactive elastic terpolymer, comprised of ethylene, butyl acrylate and glycidyl methacrylate monomeric units. The blends were analyzed by gel permeation chromatography (GPC), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), x-ray diffraction, epifluorescence microscopy, scanning laser confocal microscopy, and dynamic shear rheology. Sasobit (1 wt %) composite material showed little difference …

Go to article

Holocene Evolution And Avulsion History Of The Lower Mississippi River, Yazoo Basin, Ms, Eric Prokocki Jan 2009

Holocene Evolution And Avulsion History Of The Lower Mississippi River, Yazoo Basin, Ms, Eric Prokocki

LSU Master's Theses

Optically stimulated luminescence dates coupled with paleohydrological estimations from lower Mississippi River (LMR) meander belts within the Yazoo Basin, MS provide new insight into the geochronological and hydrologic history of the LMR throughout the Holocene period. According to OSL dates, there are only three temporally equivalent LMR meandering river regime sediment packages, and not five as previously assumed from past geochronological research initiatives within the lower Mississippi Valley (LMV). The three geochronological sediment packages from oldest to youngest are thus represented by the following LMR meander belts: Early Holocene Chronostratigraphic Package – ca. 9.19 to 8.07 ka represented by the …

Go to article

The Extended Picture Group, With Applications To Line Arrangement Complements, Charles Richard Egedy Jan 2009

The Extended Picture Group, With Applications To Line Arrangement Complements, Charles Richard Egedy

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

We obtain the picture group as the quotient with a torsion subgroup, of an extended picture group, which is isomorphic to the kernel of a precrossed module homomorphism. In addition to expanding the notion of a picture group, the new formulation gives a natural way to construct homomorphisms between picture groups by describing deformations of one-vertex subpictures. The extended picture group thus provides a convenient way to describe generators for the second homotopy group of line arrangement complements as well as homomorphisms between these groups. In particular, we show that the homomorphisms relate to a lattice structure corresponding roughly to …

Go to article

The Syntheses Of Methyl Jasmonate And Analogs Of Alpha-Methylene-Gamma-Butyrolactone Utilizing Titanium Medicated Cyclocarbonylation, Steve O. Lawrence Jan 2009

The Syntheses Of Methyl Jasmonate And Analogs Of Alpha-Methylene-Gamma-Butyrolactone Utilizing Titanium Medicated Cyclocarbonylation, Steve O. Lawrence

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

From its humble beginnings as a novel carbon–carbon bond forming reaction, the Pauson–Khand reaction has lead to the synthetic development of a variety of natural products. One particular variation of the Pauson–Khand reaction was called the hetero Pauson–Khand. This reaction differs from the normal Pauson–Khand reaction because the reaction employs an intramolecular titanium mediated cycloaddition using enal and enones instead of alkenes and alkynes functional groups to prepare a variety of natural products. These natural products usually contain a bicyclic cyclopentenone core. Because the new ring contains a hetero atom, the name hetero Pauson–Khand was coined. Alpha–Methylene–Gamma–Butyrolactones posses a wide …

Go to article

Closing The Tax Gap: Encouraging Voluntary Compliance Through Mass-Media Publication Of High-Profile Tax Issues, Elizabeth Branham Jan 2009

Closing The Tax Gap: Encouraging Voluntary Compliance Through Mass-Media Publication Of High-Profile Tax Issues, Elizabeth Branham

UC Law Journal

In 2001, the IRS estimated the gross tax gap was approximately $345 billion dollars. Each dollar not collected represents lost revenue for the federal government, the collection of which would be contributed to federally-funded public works. Within the tax gap, underreporting of individual income represented over half of uncollected revenue. Among that group of noncompliant taxpayers, most are generally not subject to third-party reporting and are therefore capable of choosing to file or to evade. This Note discusses the impact of high-profile tax prosecutions on social norms and values as an avenue to address and encourage voluntary compliance.

Go to article

Mechanistic Foam Modeling And Simulations: Gas Injection During Surfactant-Alternating-Gas Processes Using Foam-Catastrophe Theory, Ali Afsharpoor Jan 2009

Mechanistic Foam Modeling And Simulations: Gas Injection During Surfactant-Alternating-Gas Processes Using Foam-Catastrophe Theory, Ali Afsharpoor

LSU Master's Theses

The use of foam for mobility control is a promising means to improve sweep efficiency in subsurface applications such as improved/enhanced oil recovery and aquifer remediation. Foam can be introduced into geological formations by injecting gas and surfactant solutions simultaneously or alternatively. Alternating gas and surfactant solutions, which is often referred to as surfactant-alternating-gas (SAG) process, is known to effectively create fine-textured strong foams due to fluctuation in capillary pressure. Recent studies show that foam rheology in porous media can be characterized by foam-catastrophe theory which exhibits three foam states (weak-foam, strong-foam, and intermediate states) and two strong-foam regimes (high-quality …

Go to article

Function Spaces, Wavelets And Representation Theory, Jens Gerlach Christensen Jan 2009

Function Spaces, Wavelets And Representation Theory, Jens Gerlach Christensen

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation is concerned with the interplay between the theory of Banach spaces and representations of groups. The wavelet transform has proven to be a useful tool in characterizing and constructing Banach spaces, and we investigate a generalization of an already known technique due to H.G. Feichtinger and K. Gröchenig. This generalization is presented in Chapter 3, and in Chapters 4 and 5 we present examples of spaces which can be described using the theory. The first example clears up a question regarding a wavelet characterization of Bergman spaces related to a non-integrable representation. The second example is a wavelet …

Go to article

Leadership Survival And The Process Of Economic Integration, Schuyler Richard Porche Jan 2009

Leadership Survival And The Process Of Economic Integration, Schuyler Richard Porche

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The central contribution of this dissertation to political science is explaining the role of leadership survival theory in shaping the political process of initiation, broadening, deepening, and failure of economic integration agreements by nation states. The empirical research involves the creation of a dataset recording changes in economic integration for the period 1950-1999 and utilizing advanced quantitative methods to study the process. Most existing research focuses on the initiation of trade agreements. I demonstrate that the process of economic integration agreements among polities is shaped by iterated political interaction at both the domestic and international levels. The critical test in …

Go to article

Michael Martin And The Moral Argument For God's Existence, Robert Keith Loftin Jan 2009

Michael Martin And The Moral Argument For God's Existence, Robert Keith Loftin

LSU Master's Theses

Theism, that is, belief in the existence of God, has, over the last forty or so years, been making a quiet comeback. Whereas for several decades the “death of God” was heralded—culminating, perhaps, with Time magazine’s April 8, 1966, title: “Is God Dead?”—philosophers are once again vigorously debating the rationality of theistic belief. Emerging from amid this renaissance is an increasing number of publications treating the various so-called “theistic proofs” or arguments for God’s existence. These arguments are part of the project of natural theology, that is, the project of establishing the rationality of theistic belief apart from appeal to …

Go to article

Processor Design Space Exploration And Performance Prediction, Balachandran Ramadass Jan 2009

Processor Design Space Exploration And Performance Prediction, Balachandran Ramadass

LSU Master's Theses

The use of simulation is well established in processor design research to evaluate architectural design trade-offs. More importantly, Cycle by Cycle accurate simulation is widely used to evaluate the new designs in processor research because of its accurate and detailed processor performance measurement. However, only configuration in a subspace can be simulated in practice due to its long simulation time and limited resources, leading to suboptimal conclusions that might not be applied to the larger design space. In this thesis, we propose a performance prediction approach which employs a state-of-the-art technique from experimental design, machine learning and data mining. Our …

Go to article

Populations Of Vibrio Vulnificus And Vibrio Parahaemolyticus In Breton Sound And Barataria Bay, Brian William Matherne Jan 2009

Populations Of Vibrio Vulnificus And Vibrio Parahaemolyticus In Breton Sound And Barataria Bay, Brian William Matherne

LSU Master's Theses

Vibrio vulnificus and Vibrio parahaemolyticus are halophilic gram-negative bacteria that are found in warm coastal waters. These two species are the leading cause of fatal shellfish poisoning. The objective of this study was to determine the population dynamics of V. vulnificus and V. parahaemolyticus as impacted by temperature and salinity in Breton Sound and Barataria Bay of Louisiana. Water samples were collected from each water body along s salinity gradient transect monthly from September 2007 through July 2009. Furthermore, from March 2008 through July 2009 sediment and live oyster samples were collected exclusively from the Breton Sound. The population of …

Go to article

Certification: Implications For Sustainable Forest Management And Timber Export Trade In Ghana, Abraham Baffoe Jan 2009

Certification: Implications For Sustainable Forest Management And Timber Export Trade In Ghana, Abraham Baffoe

LSU Master's Theses

Forestry is a major contributor to the Ghanaian economy and has the potential to increase its contribution if a number of challenges are overcome. Over the past 15 years, Ghana has modified its forest policies, laws, and regulations, but still faces serious challenges with illegal logging and unsustainable forest management. At the same time, Ghana’s major wood product trading partner, the European Union (EU), is requesting that Ghana, under the Voluntary Partnership Agreement (VPA), ensures that wood products from Ghana to the EU are legally produced. Additionally, several EU wood product importers have requested their suppliers in Ghana to meet …

Go to article

First Prev Next Last