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LSU Master's Theses

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Articles 181 - 210 of 406

Full-Text Articles in Civil and Environmental Engineering

Uptake And Deposition Of Pyrogenic And Petrogenic Pahs On Spartina Alterniflora, Yasmin Mohammad Jan 2014

Uptake And Deposition Of Pyrogenic And Petrogenic Pahs On Spartina Alterniflora, Yasmin Mohammad

LSU Master's Theses

Saline marshes dominated by Spartina alterniflora were impacted by MC252 crude oil along Louisiana’s shoreline. Two locations were evaluated in this study; a lightly oiled, saline marsh near Port Fourchon, LA and a less saline, heavily oiled marsh near Bay Jimmy in the Barataria Basin, LA. Objectives of this study were to develop a method to extract polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) from Spartina leaves and to compare and contrast the relative uptake and deposition of petrogenic and pyrogenic PAHs in Spartina leaves. A three-step sequential extraction procedure was developed for the extraction and analysis of PAHs on Spartina leaves. In …


Travel Time Reliability And Level Of Service, Marlene Beverley Russell Jan 2014

Travel Time Reliability And Level Of Service, Marlene Beverley Russell

LSU Master's Theses

Travel time reliability (TTR) is familiar to travelers, and its indices are useful measures of the quality of a freeway’s service. Technical groups such as highway agencies are more familiar with a freeway’s level of service (LOS), but the LOS does not capture the variability in travel time. Similar to Pu (2011) this thesis introduces a modified buffer index (BI) incorporating a median rather than average travel time as a new travel time reliability measure. Current research by the SHRP 2 L08 Project Team defines freeway reliability LOS by determining equivalent travel time index for similar travel speed ranges shown …


Evaluating The Influence Of Moisture Variation On Resilient Modulus For Unsaturated Pavement Subgrades, Ayan Mehrotra Jan 2014

Evaluating The Influence Of Moisture Variation On Resilient Modulus For Unsaturated Pavement Subgrades, Ayan Mehrotra

LSU Master's Theses

The cost of repairing pavements that fail before the end of their service life is enormous in the United States and it is continuously rising. Premature pavement failure is often associated with loss of support in the subgrade layer, especially in regions with fine-grained subgrade soils. Resilient modulus (Mr) is analogous to the stiffness of a subgrade and a key design parameter for pavements. Due to seasonal variation, Mr varies periodically due to changes in moisture content. However, Mr depends not only on moisture content but also the stress state of the subgrade, which for unsaturated soils is dependent on …


Accounting For Travel Time Reliability, Trip Purpose And Departure Time Choice In An Agent-Based Dynamic Feedback-Control Toll Pricing Approach, Wan Li Jan 2014

Accounting For Travel Time Reliability, Trip Purpose And Departure Time Choice In An Agent-Based Dynamic Feedback-Control Toll Pricing Approach, Wan Li

LSU Master's Theses

The primary goal of this study is to modify the original strategy developed by Cheng and Ishak (2013) into an agent-based dynamic feedback-control toll pricing strategy that accounts for the trip purpose, travel time reliability, departure time choice and level of income such that the toll revenue is maximized while maintaining a minimum desired level of service on the managed lanes. An external module was developed to execute the modified strategy. An agent-based modeling was applied to simulate drivers’ learning process based on their previous commuting experience. The study also analyzed how driver’s heterogeneity in value of time, value of …


Identifying Local Transit Resources For Evacuation, Alaa Shams Jan 2014

Identifying Local Transit Resources For Evacuation, Alaa Shams

LSU Master's Theses

The objective of this thesis is to establish a GIS that can be used to identify local human-services and special-needs transit resources in Louisiana’s 20 coastal parishes. The intention is that the system be used to identify and then call upon local transit services to assist in the evacuation of an area during an emergency. ArcGIS Online was selected as the platform on which to establish the GIS for this purpose. Socio-economic and transit vehicle data were collected from a variety of official sources and loaded on to the ArcGIS Online portal at LSU. The development of the system is …


Comparison Of Land Building By Mississippi River Diversion Using One And Two Dimensional Numerical Models, Gyan Prasad Basyal Jan 2014

Comparison Of Land Building By Mississippi River Diversion Using One And Two Dimensional Numerical Models, Gyan Prasad Basyal

LSU Master's Theses

River sediment diversions have been identified as one strategy for creating new land and offsetting Mississippi River delta plain land loss. Numerical modeling is one tool for estimating the amount of land, geomorphic features and ecological benefits from diversions. There are a number of models proposed to estimate sediment diversion land building, ranging from simplistic approaches that provide bulk characteristics and use little computational resources to process-based models that require a large amount of input parameters and computing power. This thesis aims to compare and contrast two approaches to simulating the land building processes in a simplified receiving basin: a …


Modeling The Effect Of Gusty Hurricane Wind Force On Vehicles Using The Lsu Driving Simulator, Jose Manuel Rodriguez Jan 2014

Modeling The Effect Of Gusty Hurricane Wind Force On Vehicles Using The Lsu Driving Simulator, Jose Manuel Rodriguez

LSU Master's Theses

While traffic planning is important for developing a hurricane evacuation plan, vehicle performance on the roads during extreme weather conditions is critical to the success of the planning process. This study was designed to lay a foundation for modeling driving behavior and vehicle performance as an assessment tool in the decision making process for planning evacuation routes during hurricane and tropical storms. The study explores how the parameters of a driving simulator could be modified to reproduce wind loadings experienced by three vehicle types (a passenger car, an ambulance, and a bus) during gusty hurricane winds, through manipulation of appropriate …


Biogeochemical Controls On Biodegradation Of Mc252 Crude Oil In Coastal Wetland Systems, Matthew Paul Rodrigue Jan 2014

Biogeochemical Controls On Biodegradation Of Mc252 Crude Oil In Coastal Wetland Systems, Matthew Paul Rodrigue

LSU Master's Theses

Weathering of MC252 oil from the Deepwater Horizon oil spill is taking place in coastal Louisiana marsh and mangrove wetland systems. Alkylated phenanthrenes and dibenzothiophenes, which are the most prominent PAHs found at MC252 contaminated sites, are weathering at rates up to 5% per year relative to alkylated chrysenes 3 years after initial oiling. Flux chambers at marsh locations trapped CO2 that exhibited δ13C signatures lower than indigenous organic matter signifying hydrocarbon mineralization to CO2. Weathering rates at each of these locations are heavily influenced by the biogeochemistry of the surrounding environment. High-resolution nutrient profiles were obtained at different locations …


Biogeochemical Controls On Fate Of Subsurface Oiled Sands On A Coastal Headland Beach, Autumn Anastasia Westrick Jan 2014

Biogeochemical Controls On Fate Of Subsurface Oiled Sands On A Coastal Headland Beach, Autumn Anastasia Westrick

LSU Master's Theses

The fate of subsurface oiled sands collected from Fourchon Beach in Louisiana were determined while modifying biogeochemical controls on the degradation of PAHs. Groundwater on the beach has intrinsically low dissolved oxygen concentrations, which may limit natural biodegradation of the crude oil components. The intent of this research was to characterize the biogeochemical properties and degradability of oiled sands (with >10% of pore filled with MC252 oil) using a combination of laboratory flow-through reactor studies, field measurements and time-series microelectrode profiles of down-flow and cross flow geometries. Reactor experiments indicate that optimal conditions for substantial oil degradation are aerobic under …


Mechanical And Thermal Properties Of Fly Ash-Based Geopolymer Cement, Fenghong Fan Jan 2014

Mechanical And Thermal Properties Of Fly Ash-Based Geopolymer Cement, Fenghong Fan

LSU Master's Theses

The geopolymer concrete is a more durable and green material with less CO2 emission and less energy consuming as compared with the widely used Portland cement (PC) concrete. In this thesis, an experimental study of the thermo-mechanical properties of a cement prepared using a class F fly ash and three different alkali-activators (NaOH activator, NaOH and Na2SiO3 mixture activator, and KOH and Na2SiO3 mixture activator) is presented. The mechanical properties, including the compressive strength, shrinkage, weight loss, and chemical composition, are investigated utilizing several key tools, such as X-ray Diffraction (XRD), Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), and Energy Dispersive X-ray Spectroscopy …


Field And Numerical Investigation Of Wave Power And Shoreline Retreat In Terrebonne Bay, Southern Louisiana, Kyle Ryan Parker Jan 2014

Field And Numerical Investigation Of Wave Power And Shoreline Retreat In Terrebonne Bay, Southern Louisiana, Kyle Ryan Parker

LSU Master's Theses

The marshland in southern Louisiana is a vital resource that many people and wildlife depend on. Terrebonne Bay was chosen for this research because it has experienced one of the largest wetland loss rates among Louisiana estuaries. Investigations of wave power and shoreline retreat rate could provide decision makers with a better understanding of the contributing wave force responsible for local shoreline retreat. A strong relationship has been shown to exist between wave power and shoreline retreat [Schwimmer (2001) and Marani et al. (2011)]. Whether or not this strong relationship exists in Terrebonne Bay is the subject of this research. …


Restraint Moments Due To Thermal Gradients In Continuous Prestressed Concrete Girder Bridges, Sushovan Ghimire Jan 2014

Restraint Moments Due To Thermal Gradients In Continuous Prestressed Concrete Girder Bridges, Sushovan Ghimire

LSU Master's Theses

This research is motivated by the need to develop new bridges, using new materials and construction details to achieve the goal of building longer span bridges that are safe and durable. The study of precast/prestressed concrete bridges made continuous started early in the 1960’s. Continuous bridges have many advantages compared to simple span bridges such as reduction in structural depth, riding comfort and reserve load capacity under overload conditions. They also eliminate joints that require a lot of maintenance and cause deterioration in some cases. The design and construction of continuous bridges requires the consideration of many factors that are …


Determining The Location Of Congestion Hot Spots In Urban Areas Using Image Analysis, Aditya Mokkapati Jan 2014

Determining The Location Of Congestion Hot Spots In Urban Areas Using Image Analysis, Aditya Mokkapati

LSU Master's Theses

The identification of congestion hot spots plays an important role in congestion monitoring of highway and arterial systems. Traditionally, vehicle detection systems or probe vehicles are used to measure travel time and identify congestion hot spots. This approach is time-consuming and resource intensive. With the advent of new technologies like crowdsourcing, travel time can be collected more cost-effectively using fewer resources. The research presented in this paper develops a new methodology to identify congestion hot spots in an urban area using freely available historical speed data gathered by Google and published as a traffic layer in Google maps. The methodology …


Assimilation, A Biological Nitrogen Removal Strategy For Freshwater Ornamental Fish Hatcheries, Fatemehsadat Fahandezhsadi Jan 2014

Assimilation, A Biological Nitrogen Removal Strategy For Freshwater Ornamental Fish Hatcheries, Fatemehsadat Fahandezhsadi

LSU Master's Theses

Freshwater ornamental fish production is a major component of aquaculture in the southeastern United States. Closed recirculating aquaculture systems (RASs) allow freshwater ornamental fish hatcheries to mimic native water quality conditions for sensitive species. Total ammonia-N (TAN) removal is the major concern for closed RASs. Biological nitrification is the common method to control TAN. However, the nitrification process might be impaired in acidic water condition with pH<7. Another issue of using the nitrification process for TAN removal is that the nitrification is not sufficient to compensate for the amount of ammonia released in larval production systems because of slow growth rate of nitrifying bacteria. To address these issues, this study suggests an aerobic assimilation strategy in which fast growing heterotrophic bacteria directly convert TAN into microbial biomass. The heterotrophic bacteria needs an external carbon source. This study employed polyhydroxybutyrate (PHB) that is a solid insoluble bioplastic, as a carbon source in the aerobic assimilation process to avoid releasing carbon into the system. In order to understand the applicability of an assimilation process instead of nitrification, this study compared the ammonia-N removal rate by aerobic assimilation biofilters operating @ pH 8 and 6.5 in a batch system. The study also quantified the performance of an aerobic assimilation strategy under different continuous nitrogen loading regimes. This investigation can be used to establish the biofilter air pulsing frequency, which is the optimized air pulsing frequency that avoids clogging in the system. The results showed that there was no apparent release of carbon in the water tank. Unlike nitrification, assimilation strategy for TAN removal was not significantly different in two pH of 8 and 6.5 @ 28 ° C. The average consumption rate of the PHB was found as 21.93± 0.43 grams of PHB consumed per gram of TAN. The results from the continuous system, at a continuous feeding rate of 350 mg-N/d, suggested that the optimum air pulsing frequency through the PHB bed for releasing the excess biosolids was about 6-hour. In general, the study found that the aerobic assimilation using polyhydroxybutyrate (PHB) as a carbon source is an applicable method for ammonia-N removal particularly for freshwater ornamental fish production systems. The drawback against this approach is that the PHB beads are expensive. However, our investigations show that the average cost of the PHB beads have been decreased dramatically during the last few years. This might indicate that the assimilation using PHB beads can be a reasonable choice for ammonia-N removal particularly for freshwater ornamental fish production systems.


Iron Removal Using Electro- Coagulation Followed By Floating Bead Bed Filtration, Asmita Anil Phadke Jan 2014

Iron Removal Using Electro- Coagulation Followed By Floating Bead Bed Filtration, Asmita Anil Phadke

LSU Master's Theses

High iron concentrations in the water used for aquaculture results in stock losses. It is necessary to drop down the iron concentrations to levels which can be handled by the fish. Electrocoagulation followed by floating bead bed filtration was used to remove iron from water. Electrocoagulation was carried out using aluminum electrodes. The flocs formed in the coagulation tank were then filtered out using 2-3 mm polyethylene floating beads having specific gravity of 0.92 gm/cm3. Proper retention time of ≥ 10 min, pH of 6±0.2, Al3+ coagulant dosage of about 9 mg-Al3+/ L and flow rate ≤ 0.4 gpm resulted …


Biodegradation Of Mc252 Crude Oil After Mobilization By Washover Events On Coastal Headland Beaches, David Nelson Curtis Jan 2014

Biodegradation Of Mc252 Crude Oil After Mobilization By Washover Events On Coastal Headland Beaches, David Nelson Curtis

LSU Master's Theses

Washover events on coastal headland beaches occur when storm surge from cold fronts, high tides, tropical storms, and hurricanes move across the beach, reworking and depositing sand in the back marshes and shallow mudflat areas. On Fourchon Beach, Louisiana, a 9-mile coastal headland beach impacted by the Deep Water Horizon oil spill, these washover events have intermittently moved oil from the subtidal and intertidal portion of the beach to the supratidal mudflats and marsh areas. In order to determine the impacts of washover events on oil fate, 3 complementary studies were undertaken. First, washover areas (N=59) have been mapped and …


Evaluating The Impact Of Lean On Employee Ergonomics, Safety, And Job Satisfaction In Manufacturing, Amanda Morse Jan 2014

Evaluating The Impact Of Lean On Employee Ergonomics, Safety, And Job Satisfaction In Manufacturing, Amanda Morse

LSU Master's Theses

The goal of this study was to explore the proposed relationship between employee satisfaction, ergonomics, and safety while implementing a Kaizen event. In order to address this goal, two Kaizen events (K1 and K2) were conducted in a heavy equipment manufacturing plant. Before and after both events, levels of employee satisfaction were documented for Kaizen and Non-Kaizen (NK) participants using the Job Diagnostic Survey (JDS). The objective of the first event (K1) was to improve the efficiency of the task of torqueing the rear axle bolts in Station #1- skid assembly. The K1 methodology followed a traditional Kaizen structure, enhanced …


Modeling Of Shear Strengthening Of Reinforced Concrete Beams Retrofitted With Externally Bonded Fiber Reinforced Polymers, Srinivasa Anusha Bellamkonda Jan 2013

Modeling Of Shear Strengthening Of Reinforced Concrete Beams Retrofitted With Externally Bonded Fiber Reinforced Polymers, Srinivasa Anusha Bellamkonda

LSU Master's Theses

This thesis presents a study on the shear retrofit of reinforced concrete (RC) beams with externally bonded fiber reinforced polymers (FRP), since it is very important for RC beam to have a shear strength that is higher than the flexural strength in order to ensure ductile flexural failure mode. The study proposes a new model to predict the FRP shear strength contribution for different modes of failure, i.e., bending, shear with FRP rupture, shear with FRP debonding, and mixed shear-flexure and various retrofit techniques, i.e., side-bonding, U-jacketing, and full wrapping. The proposed model is compared to other existing models for …


Deflection Based Condition Assessment For Rolling Wheel Deflectometer At Network Level, Karthik Venkatesh Dasari Jan 2013

Deflection Based Condition Assessment For Rolling Wheel Deflectometer At Network Level, Karthik Venkatesh Dasari

LSU Master's Theses

The Rolling Wheel Deflectometer (RWD) is capable of measuring pavement deflection at high speeds without traffic interruption or compromising safety along tested road segments. To optimize the use of RWD at the network level, an assessment tool is needed to incorporate RWD data into current Pavement Management System (PMS) and to identify pavements in need of maintenance or rehabilitation. The objective of this study is to present the development of a screening tool, referred to as the pavement assessment triangular model, to predict pavement overall conditions based on RWD deflection, roughness measurements, and surface conditions as described by the Pavement …


Erosional Resistance Of Cohesive Sediments In Coastal Saltmarshes, Hem Raj Pant Jan 2013

Erosional Resistance Of Cohesive Sediments In Coastal Saltmarshes, Hem Raj Pant

LSU Master's Theses

Louisiana’s saltmarshes, one of the most productive wetlands in the nation, are undergoing severe erosion due to hydrodynamic forces (storm surge) and sea level rise. The erosional behavior of coastal saltmarshes, which possess cohesive sediments as their integral components, are very difficult to analyze and understand. The erosional resistance of cohesive sediments determines the stability and sustainability of coastal wetlands. This erosional resistance is expressed as an erosion threshold or critical shear stress, which depends on various soil properties (e.g. water content, root content, organic matter content, and pore water salinity) affecting saltmarsh erodibility integratively. A cohesive strength meter was …


Degradation And Inhibition Of Chlorinated Ethanes And Ethenes In A Two Bed, Sequential Bioremediation System, Alex Boudreau Jan 2013

Degradation And Inhibition Of Chlorinated Ethanes And Ethenes In A Two Bed, Sequential Bioremediation System, Alex Boudreau

LSU Master's Theses

A continuous-flow system composed of two anaerobic bioreactor (ABR) columns (based on engineered wetland systems) connected in series was tested to observe the ability of such a system to treat multiple volatile organic compounds (VOCs) possessing suspected inhibitory effects on the dechlorination of other compounds with cis-1,2-dichloroethylene (cDCE) and 1,1-dichloroethane (1,1-DCA) as the main test chemicals. Following the establishment of cDCE and 1,1-DCA dechlorinating ability at baseline conditions, system perturbations of breakthrough and starvation were conducted to measure the response and recovery of the system dechlorination. In all column experiments, it was observed cDCE dechlorination inhibited the dechlorination of 1,1-DCA …


Development Of Watershed-Based Modeling Approach To Pollution Source Identification, Yangbin Tong Jan 2013

Development Of Watershed-Based Modeling Approach To Pollution Source Identification, Yangbin Tong

LSU Master's Theses

Identification of unknown pollution sources is essential to environmental protection and emergency response. A review of recent publications in source identification revealed that there are very limited numbers of research in modeling methods for rivers. What’s more, the majority of these attempts were to find the source strength and release time, while only a few of them discussed how to identify source locations. Comparisons of these works indicated that a combination of biological, mathematical and geographical method could effectively identify unknown source area(s), which was a more practical trial in a watershed. This thesis presents a watershed-based modeling approach to …


Experimental Fragility Analysis Of Aluminum Storm Panels Subject To Windborne Debris, Taylor C. Alphonso Jan 2013

Experimental Fragility Analysis Of Aluminum Storm Panels Subject To Windborne Debris, Taylor C. Alphonso

LSU Master's Theses

The research presented in this thesis focused on the derivation of experimental fragility curves for windborne debris (WBD) impact risk assessment of building envelope components (BECs) with ductile behavior (in particular, aluminum storm panels) within the performance-based hurricane engineering (PBHE) framework. Using a pneumatic wind cannon, rod-type WBDs were fired at aluminum storm panels to represent real-life WBD impact hazard. The experimental data from testing were used to derive the probability of failure relative to specific damage measures (DMs) versus its corresponding interaction parameter (IP). These experimentally derived probabilities were compared with results that are available in the literature and …


A Dynamic Feedback-Control Toll Pricing Methodology : A Case Study On Interstate 95 Manged Lanes, Danhong Cheng Jan 2013

A Dynamic Feedback-Control Toll Pricing Methodology : A Case Study On Interstate 95 Manged Lanes, Danhong Cheng

LSU Master's Theses

Recently, congestion pricing emerged as a cost-effective and efficient strategy to mitigate the congestion problem on freeways. This study develops a feedback-control based dynamic toll approach to formulate and solve for optimal tolls. The study compares the performance of the proposed methodology to that of the current strategy deployed on Interstate 95 express lanes. Two objectives are studied: one is to maximize the toll revenue while maintaining a minimum level of service on the managed lanes and the other is to maximize both revenue and throughput on the managed lanes while keeping a minimum level of service. The impact of …


The Uplift Resistance Of Spartina Alterniflora In A Louisiana Salt Marsh, James Madison Bouanchaud Iii Jan 2013

The Uplift Resistance Of Spartina Alterniflora In A Louisiana Salt Marsh, James Madison Bouanchaud Iii

LSU Master's Theses

The uprooting resistance of Spartina Alterniflora was measured in Terrebonne Bay and Bay Jimmy, both of which are located in Louisiana. The parameters collected included plant uprooting resistance, stem diameter, and stem height. Seasonal variations and site specific properties were considered. A device was designed and constructed that was able to perform the specific testing under the constraints of the field site. The device consisted of a winch mounted to a tripod and connected to an inline load cell to measure the uprooting resistance. The data sets were analyzed to determine the relationship between the uprooting resistance and the physical …


Documenting Postural Changes And Repetition Among Violin Players And Their Influence In The Development Of Musculoskeletal Disorders, Cristina Handal Jan 2013

Documenting Postural Changes And Repetition Among Violin Players And Their Influence In The Development Of Musculoskeletal Disorders, Cristina Handal

LSU Master's Theses

The objective of this study was to document the changes in posture and the number of wrist and forearm repetitions among violin/viola players during an experiment session to attempt to understand the development of musculoskeletal disorders. Also, the perception of discomfort and pain felt by the violin/viola players in the past and the number that had been diagnosed with a disorder was documented. Finally, possible correlations were calculated between pain/discomfort with variables like the number of years playing the violin, hours of practice/day, frequency of pain, gender, and dominant hand and among different pain/discomfort variables (pain/discomfort before the experiment, after …


Biofilter Treatment Of Gas Phase Β-Caryophyllene At Elevated Temperature, Yiying Yue Jan 2013

Biofilter Treatment Of Gas Phase Β-Caryophyllene At Elevated Temperature, Yiying Yue

LSU Master's Theses

Industrial wood processing operations generate a variety of gaseous emissions containing volatile organic compounds (VOCs). One of the VOCs emitted from the processing of coniferous softwood tree species is β-caryophyllene, a naturally occurring sesquiterpene of environmental concern. One approach that may be attractive for treating gaseous emissions of β-caryophyllene from wood processing operations is the use of fixed-film processes commonly referred to as biofiltration. Previously, it was established that β-caryophyllene can be successfully treated via biofiltration at temperatures in the mesophilic range. Many gaseous emissions from industrial wood processing operations, however, are higher in temperature than those employed in the …


Biofiltration For Treatment Of Gases Contaminanted By Beta-Caryophyllene, Weili Hu Jan 2012

Biofiltration For Treatment Of Gases Contaminanted By Beta-Caryophyllene, Weili Hu

LSU Master's Theses

Fixed-film biological treatment processes, commonly referred to as biofilters, have been applied to successfully treat a wide variety of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) present in air emitted by a wide variety of industrial operations. The ability of biofilters to treat some classes of VOCs, however, has not been well established. In particular, the performance of biofilters treating sesquiterpenes has not been widely studied. In the research described herein, a laboratory-scale biofilter was operated to treat a synthetic waste gas stream containing â-caryophyllene, a sesquiterpene emitted by conifer trees and industrial wood processing operations. An enrichment culture developed in an initial …


The Biomechanics Of Salt Marsh Vegetation Applied To Wave And Surge Attenuation, James Chatagnier Jan 2012

The Biomechanics Of Salt Marsh Vegetation Applied To Wave And Surge Attenuation, James Chatagnier

LSU Master's Theses

The Northern coast of the Gulf of Mexico is threatened by storm surge and waves from tropical storms. It has been long known that marsh vegetation attenuates storm surge and waves and is vital for sustaining marsh edges. However, little is known about the relationship between plant properties and the amount of storm surge and wave reduction the plants provide. In order to better understand the stiffness properties and physical dimensions of saltmarsh vegetation, which are directly related to their ability to attenuate waves and storm surge, this study has been conducted. Stiffness of salt marsh vegetation was determined through …


Reductive Dechlorination Of High Concentrations Of 1,2-Dichloroethane, 1,2-Dichloropropane, And 1,1,2-Trichloroethane By Dehalogenimonas Sp., Andrew D. Maness Jan 2012

Reductive Dechlorination Of High Concentrations Of 1,2-Dichloroethane, 1,2-Dichloropropane, And 1,1,2-Trichloroethane By Dehalogenimonas Sp., Andrew D. Maness

LSU Master's Theses

The research goals presented here were to evaluate the solvent concentrations over which Dehalogenimonas lykanthroporepellens strain BL-DC-9T and Dehalogenimonas sp. IP3-3 are able to reductively dechlorinate 1,2-dichloroethane (1,2-DCA), 1,2-dichloropropane (1,2-DCP), and 1,1,2-trichloroethane (1,1,2-TCA). Both of these novel bacteria were isolated from contaminated groundwater at the PetroProcessors of Louisiana, Inc. Superfund site located near Baton Rouge. Both cluster in the phylum Chloroflexi, related to, but distinct from, the widely studied, reductively dechlorinating “Dehalococcoides” strains .

Although previous research demonstrated that strains BL-DC-9T and IP3-3 are able to reductively dechlorinate a variety of polyhalogenated alkanes, the solvent concentration at which the strains …