Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Red Swamp Crayfish Procambarus Clarkii In The Atchafalaya River Basin: Biotic And Abiotic Effects On Population Dynamics And Physiological Biomarkers Of Hypoxic Stress, Christopher Paul Bonvillain

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Crayfish harvested from the Atchafalaya River Basin (ARB) represent the majority of Louisiana wild crayfish landings. However, excluding water level influences, it is difficult to elucidate inter-annual harvest differences and intra-annual population variability among habitats. This research investigated ecological influences on population characteristics of red swamp crayfish Procambarus clarkii in the southeastern ARB as well as physiological biomarkers of hypoxic stress in P. clarkii. Biotic and abiotic effects on P. clarkii populations were examined throughout the 2008 and 2009 commercial crayfish seasons. P. clarkii catch per unit effort (CPUE) at sampling locations increased nearly 600% between sample years despite similar …

Skill Assessment And Optimization Of The Third Generation Wave Models For Applications In Gulf Of Mexico, Seyed Mostafa Siadatmousavi

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Numerical phase-averaged wave models are the best option to obtain the spatial and temporal distribution of the wave energy over a large domain, such as the Gulf of Mexico. Parallel implementation of unstructured SWAN and WAVEWATCH-III were engaged in this research to evaluate the performance of third generation wave models for different conditions. Met-ocean data from a network of NDBC buoys and WAVCIS stations were used to assess the predictive skills of the wave models. Deep water wave energy dissipation formulations were carefully analyzed and modified to improve the accuracy of the bulk wave parameters. Moreover, the importance of the …

Searches For Gravitational Waves From Perturbed Black Holes In Data From Ligo Detectors, Sarah Elizabeth Caudill

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Black hole perturbation theory predicts that a perturbed black hole will emit gravitational waves in a superposition of quasi-normal modes. Various astrophysical processes can produce such a black hole including the merger of two compact binary neutron stars or black holes. The final form of the waveform from such a system is known as a ringdown. We discuss the search through data from LIGO's fifth science run for ringdown gravitational waves from intermediate mass black holes using a matched filtering pipeline. We outline the improvements to the pipeline since LIGO's fourth science run including the creation of a fully automated …

Pmi 5011 Regulates The Ubiquitin Proteasome System In Skeletal Muscle, Heather Christianne Kirk-Ballard

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Insulin resistance in type 2 diabetes is associated with impaired glucose and protein metabolism in skeletal muscle. The impaired insulin signaling in skeletal muscle affects muscle mass by tilting the balance between skeletal muscle protein synthesis and degradation toward degradation, a process that is primarily regulated by the ubiquitin-proteasome system. Studies have shown that an extensively characterized ethanol extract of Artemisia dracunculus L (Russian Tarragon), termed PMI 5011, enhances insulin signaling in human primary skeletal muscle cells and in a rodent model of insulin resistance. The aim of this project is to determine if the effect of PMI 5011 on …

Entanglement, Uncertainty And Relativity In Fundamental Mechanics With An Application In Qkd, Christopher David Richardson

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

In this dissertation I will probe the innate uncertainty of quantum mechanics. After deriving the necessary tools I will tackle Popper's experiment, a long misunderstood thought experiment with recent experimental results. I will then discuss how uncertainty changes when making measurements from different relativistic reference frames and resolve some on the tension between quantum mechanics and relativity. Finally I utilize the practical aspect of quantum uncertainty and describe a practical quantum key distribution scheme.

Fabrication, Analysis, Application, And Characterization Of Core-Containing Microparticles And Hydrophilic Microfluidic Devices Produced Via The Primary- And In Situ Tertiary-Amine Catalyzed Michael Addition Of Multifunctional Thiols To Multifunctional Acrylates, Christopher O. Bounds

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The objective of this research was to investigate amine-catalyzed thiol-acrylate chemistry for various novel applications that could fully utilize the untapped potential of this useful and robust chemistry. The use of this chemistry in each application solved a problem, improved on a disadvantage of current technologies, and decreased the level of complexity in association with required time, cost, and/or preparation conditions. The first novel application conceived, applied, and analyzed was in the field of microencapsulation. A novel approach for the preparation of microparticles via a dispersion polymerization using the primary amine-catalyzed addition of a trithiol to a triacrylate was realized …

Development Of Innovative Stationary Phases For Chiral And Protein Separations In Open Tubular Capillary Electrochromatography, Leonard Moore, Jr.

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Protein biomarkers in bodily fluids can lead to an indication of the onset of a disease. Due to low abundance of the biomarker at early stages of the disease and other protein interferences, detection may be challenging. Therefore, in order to achieve more selective protein separations, the development of a novel stationary phase has been investigated. Moreover, novel methods to apply polysaccharides as stationary phases were developed for protein separations as well as chiral separations. The initial discussions in this dissertation commences with the use of novel zwitterionic lysine-based molecular micelles as a coating for open tubular capillary electrochromatography (OT-CEC) …

Syntheses And Characterization Of Water-Soluble Phythalocyanines For Diagnosis And Treatment Of Cancer, Benson Getenga Ongarora

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Ongarora, Benson Getenga, B.S., Moi University, 2005 Doctor of Philosophy, Fall Commencement, 2012 Major: Chemistry Syntheses and Characterization of Water-Soluble Phthalocyanines for Diagnosis and Treatment of Cancer Dissertation directed by Professor M.Graҫa H. Vicente Pages in dissertation, xi. Words in abstract, 251. ABSTRACT Chapter 1 describes the general properties of phthalocyanines, synthesis of metallo-phthalocyanines, their photophysical features and their uses. The concepts of PDT and targeted therapeutics are also introduced. Chapter 2 describes the syntheses, characterization, photophysical studies and biological evaluation of cationic phthalocyanines. The trimethylaminophenoxy substituted phthalocyanines were synthesized through statistical condensation method, which gave a statistical mixture of …

Detection And Characterization Of Environmentally Persistent Free Radicals (Epfrs) In Soils And Sediments From Superfund Sites, Albert Leo N. Dela Cruz

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Environmentally persistent free radicals (EPFRs) from combustion-generated PM have been demonstrated to form via reactions of molecular precursors with redox-active transition metals at 150-500C thermal reactions in a few seconds reaction times. While ambient temperatures are much lower, soils/sediments contain similar transition metals, and reaction times of contaminants in soils/sediments are years, rather than seconds. This questions whether EPFRs could be formed at ambient temperatures in soils/sediments from Superfund sites that are contaminated with hazardous materials. Superfund soils contaminated with PCP from Georgia and Montana, and sediments contaminated with PAHs from Washington. Using EPR spectroscopy, EPFR concentrations and structural assignments …

Operational Methods For Evolution Equations, Lee Gregory Windsperger

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation refines and further develops numerical methods for the inversion of the classical Laplace transform and explores the effectiveness of these methods when applied (a) to an asymptotic generalization of the Laplace transform for generalized functions and (b) to the numerical approximation of solutions of ill-posed evolution equations (e.g. backwards in time problems).

Chapter 1 of the dissertation reviews some of the key features of asymptotic Laplace transform theory and its application to evolution equations. Although some of the statements and results contain slight modifications and improvements, the material presented in Chapter 1 is known …

Graham's Variety And Perverse Sheaves On The Nilpotent Cone, Amber Russell

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

In recent work, Graham has defined a variety which maps to the nilpotent cone, and which shares many properties with the Springer resolution. However, Graham's map is not an isomorphism over the principal orbit, and for type A in particular, its fibers have a nice relationship with the fundamental groups of the nilpotent orbits. The goal of this dissertation is to determine which simple perverse sheaves appear when the Decomposition Theorem for perverse sheaves is applied in Graham's setting for type A, and to begin to answer this question in the other types as well. In Chapter 1, we give …

Semantically-Aware Data Discovery And Placement In Collaborative Computing Environments, Xinqi Wang

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

As the size of scientific datasets and the demand for interdisciplinary collaboration grow in modern science, it becomes imperative that better ways of discovering and placing datasets generated across multiple disciplines be developed to facilitate interdisciplinary scientific research.

For discovering relevant data out of large-scale interdisciplinary datasets. The development and integration of cross-domain metadata is critical as metadata serves as the key guideline for organizing data. To develop and integrate cross-domain metadata management systems in interdisciplinary collaborative computing environment, three key issues need to be addressed: the development of a cross-domain metadata schema; the implementation of a metadata management system …

An Evaluation Of Alternative Approaches For Simulating Animal Movement In Spatially-Explicit Individual-Based Models, Katherine Shepard Watkins

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Simulating animal movement in spatially-explicit individual-based models (IBMs) is both challenging and critically important to accurately estimating population dynamics. I compared four distinct movement approaches or sub-models (restricted-area search, kinesis, event-based, and run and tumble) in a series of simulation experiments. I used an IBM loosely based on a small pelagic fish that simulated growth, mortality, and movement of a cohort on a 2-dimensional grid. First, I tested the sub-models calibrated (i.e., trained) with a genetic algorithm in one set of environmental conditions in three other novel environments. The sub-models performed well, except restricted-area search and event-based that needed to …

Hadronic Physics From Extensive Air Showers, Guofeng Yuan

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Although cosmic rays were discovered exactly one century ago, the most fundamental questions about them are still not answered, especially the origin and composition of ultra-high energy cosmic rays (UHECR). The Pierre Auger Observatory (PAO) is constructed with the goal of solving these mysteries. The PAO uses hybrid design and take advantage of both the air fluorescence and surface array technique. Since its debut in 2004, PAO has published several important scientific results.

The most probable candidate for UHECR composition is proton or iron nucleus. The two candidates do show differences in both fluorescence detector (FD) signal and in the …

Design And Analysis Of Cloaked Fluorophores For Rapid Detection And Visualization Of Cancer Cells Containing Nad(P)H:Quinone Oxidoreductase-1, William Silvers

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The development of fluorogenic substrates for real-time tumor cell detection has led to a vastly expanding field for personal oncology. Fluorophores have been studied as appendages to larger scaffolds leading to accumulation of these dyes in tumor cells or their surrounding environment, taking advantage of tumor anatomy. A new class of fluorophores has been developed in which the dye is an active participant in the mechanism of cancer cell detection. These dyes have been conjugated such that their fluorescence has been eliminated or altered and will undergo a change to reveal their fluorescent signal upon activation by a mechanism that …

What Does The ¹⁴C Method For Estimating Photosynthetic Rates In The Ocean Really Measure?, Shaofeng Pei

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The ¹⁴C method has been used extensively by both limnologists and oceanographers to measure photosynthetic rates in aquatic systems, and the large database of ¹⁴C measurements that now exists is the ground truth with which satellite algorithms for estimating marine photosynthetic rates on a basin and global scale have been calibrated. However, disconcerting uncertainties still remain with respect to whether and under what circumstances the ¹⁴C method provides an estimate of net or gross photosynthesis, or something in between. My study combined batch and continuous culture studies to clarify this ambiguous issue. The batch culture work with …

Habitat Use, Movements, And Ecology Of Female Mottled Ducks On The Gulf Coast Of Louisiana And Texas, Bruce Edward Davis

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Mottled ducks (Anas fulvigula) are the most abundant breeding waterfowl in the coastal marshes of Louisiana and Texas. Mottled ducks are non-migratory and heavily dependent on coastal marsh habitats; they must satisfy all of their annual resource needs from within the Gulf Coast region. Coastal marsh habitats are being rapidly lost or degraded in Louisiana and Texas. The hydrology of many coastal marsh habitats has been altered by anthropogenic activity and natural factors. Parameters related to Mottled Duck habitat use and movements in this altered environment are poorly understood, and managers need information on vital rates of Mottled Ducks in …

Investigations Into The Role Of Natural Organic Matter As An Interface Between Aquatic Organisms And Environmental Pollutants, Caroline Lillian Schneider

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The impact of the continuous pollution of freshwater environments by multiple pollutants has not been well-studied. The goal of this research was to evaluate the toxicity of several modern pollutants in a model environment. The prokaryotic, unicellular blue-green algae Synechocystis WT6803 and the eukaryotic, multicellular Utterbackia imbecillis mussel larvae were studied along with Suwannee River natural organic matter (NOM). The toxicity response of the blue-green algae Synechocystis sp. was measured through changes in growth rates. The inorganic pollutant silver nanoparticles (0.044 μM) were toxic. Gold nanoparticles did not affect the growth rate. The addition of 15 mg/L NOM partially inhibited …

Synthesis, Characterization, And Self-Assembly Of Porphyrins Conjugated To Superparamagnetic Colloidal Particles For Enhanced Photodynamic Therapy, Javoris Hollingsworth

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Porphyrins and their derivatives are often used as photosensitizers in photodynamic therapy (PDT), which is a noninvasive antitumor treatment. The photochemical process for PDT involves exciting a photosensitizing agent with visible light, which induces cytotoxicity in the presence of oxygen as a result of forming reactive oxygen species (ROS). The ROS are the responsible components for invoking cell death and destruction of tumors. Although this mechanism is an effective cancer therapeutic, it still has many shortcomings. One major challenge of PDT concerns improving the tumor selectivity and specificity of photosensitizers because porphyrins have nonspecific affinity to tumor cells. The discussed …

A New Model For Coalition Formation Games, Alfred Samman

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

We present two broad categories of games, namely, group matching games and bottleneck routing games on grids. Borrowing ideas from coalition formation games, we introduce a new category of games which we call group matching games. We investigate how these games perform when agents are allowed to make selfish decisions that increase their individual payoffs versus when agents act towards the social benefit of the game as a whole. The Price of Anarchy (PoA) and Price of Stability (PoS) metrics are used to quantify these comparisons. We show that the PoA for a group matching game is at most kα …

Biomass Energy Production In Louisiana: A Gis Study On The Supply Chain, Anil Raj Kizhakkepurakkal

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

One major drawback of biomass fuel is its bulky nature and the resulting high cost of transporting the fuel to the facility where the energy is being produced. Hence, supply chain of biomass residues plays a crucial role in determining the financial viability of bioenergy production. Transporting biomass for energy purposes more than 50 miles (80 km) is not considered economically feasible in most conditions. In the wood energy scenario, the maximum distance is more often restricted to distances of less than 200 km between production and consumption (via road). A study was done to determine logging residues and agricultural …

Challenges In The Discovery And Characterization Of Magnetic Intermetallics, William A. Phelan

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The crystal growth and characterization of four families of compounds, LnFeSb3 (Ln = Pr, Nd, Sm, Gd, and Tb) and CeCo(Sb, Sn)3, Ln2Fe4Sb5 (Ln = La – Nd and Sm), LnCu2(Al,Si)5 (Ln = La and Ce), and Ln(Cu,Al,Ga)13 (Ln = La – Pr and Eu), are presented in this dissertation. Special emphasis is placed on describing their structure-magnetic properties correlations. Discoveries and studies of these systems were motivated by their structurally related predecessors, which are comprised of complex structural subunits and exhibit unusual physical properties. The magnetic behaviors exhibited by a selection of these intermetallics include the large magnetoresistances and …

Studies Of A Dirhodium Tetraphosphine Catalyst For Hydroformylation And Aldehyde-Water Shift Catalysis, Aaron Rider Barnum

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Research into the dirhodium tetraphosphine catalyst precursor [rac-Rh2(nbd)2(et,ph-P4)](BF4)2 shows it is capable of forming a highly active and regioselective hydroformylation catalyst in situ when using an acetone or acetone/water solvent. Hydroformylation experiments (using 1-hexene), FT-IR studies, and acid-base studies were performed to better understand the various complexes of the dirhodium catalyst cycle. These studies lead to the newly proposed catalyst mechanism when performed in an acetone/water solution, using the monocationic [rac-Rh2(H)(µ-CO)2(CO) (et,ph-P4)]+ as the proposed active catalyst complex for hydroformylation. For the conversion of 1-hexene to heptanal, it is capable of performing an initial rate of 30 turnovers per min, …

Beta-Diketone And Beta-Ketoenamine Based Molecular Squares, Jackson Kiplagat Cherutoi

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Abstract This dissertation focuses on synthesis of β-diketone and β-ketoenamine ligands for molecular polygons. Previous work with the bis(β-diketone) m-pbaH2 showed that it can be converted to a copper molecular square, Cu4(m-pba)4, but its use in host-guest reactions was limited by its low solubility in most organic solvents. Accordingly, in the present work, the m-pbhxH2 ligand, with pentyl chains replacing the methyl groups in the β-diketone moieties of m-pbaH2, was successfully prepared beginning with 6-dodecyne. This ligand reacts with Cu2+ to make the molecular square Cu4(m-pbhx)4, which is soluble in a wider range of solvents. Host-guest reactions of Cu4(m-pbhx)4 with …

Studies On A Dirhodium Tetraphosphine Hydroformylation Catalyst, Darina Polakova

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The dirhodium tetraphosphine catalyst [Rh2(nbd)2(rac-et,ph-P4)](BF4)2 was investigated in acetone and water/acetone in order to explain better hydroformylation results in the latter solvent. In-situ NMR spectroscopy showed slower degradation in water/acetone. Less tendency to form penta/hexacarbonyl complexes in water/acetone was shown by 31P{1H} NMR and FT-IR. A pH decrease and hydroformylation studies in presence of a base indicated formation of a monocationic monohydride species. A new reaction mechanism was suggested that takes into account the observed differences from the acetone solvent system. The presence of water enabled production of hydride species when the dirhodium catalyst was exposed to CO gas. We …

Resonance And Double Negative Behavior In Metamaterials, Yue Chen

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

In this work, a generic class of metamaterials is introduced and is shown to exhibit frequency dependent double negative effective properties. We develop a rigorous method for calculating the frequency intervals where either double negative or double positive effective properties appear and show how these intervals imply the existence of propagating Bloch waves inside sub-wavelength structures. The branches of the dispersion relation associated with Bloch modes are shown to be explicitly determined by the Dirichlet spectrum of the high dielectric phase and the generalized electrostatic spectra of the complement. For numerical purposes, we consider a metamaterial constructed from a sub-wavelength …

Linking Nitrogen Biogeochemistry To Different Stages Of Wetland Soil Development In The Mississippi River Delta, Louisiana, Kelly Marie Henry

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Extensive wetland loss and nutrient-enhanced eutrophication occur across the Mississippi River delta and include newly emergent landscapes, in the early stages of ecological succession, and older landscape formations, with fully developed ecological communities. Here I tested how the anthropogenic effects of a climate-induced vegetation shift, an oil spill, and nitrate-enrichment regulate the principal environmental factors controlling nutrient biogeochemistry in wetland soils at different stages of development throughout the Mississippi River delta. In the older, transgressing Barataria basin, there was no clear effect of the climate-induced species shift from Spartina alterniflora Loisel to Avicennia germinans L. on soil nutrient chemistry. Observed …

Conformance Testing Of Peer-To-Peer Systems Using Message Traffic Analysis, John Wesley Burris

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Peer-to-Peer architectures are used by a large number of distributed systems; however, the challenges such as maintaining a reliable and stable peer-to-peer network can make such networks undesirable for distributed systems. Peer-to-peer architectures are designed to be executed on systems with diverse hardware configurations, distant geographic locations, and varied, unpredictable Internet connectivity that make the software testing process difficult. This research defines a method for conformance testing peer-to-peer content distribution systems called “Method for Conformance Testing by Analyzing Message Activity” (MCTAMA). MCTAMA uses a common representation for describing the behavior of nodes during both design and deployment. ATAMA generates, evaluates …

Chemical And Biological Evaluation Of Antibiotic-Based Ionic Liquids And Gumbos Against Pathogenic Bacteria, Marsha Rae Cole

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The research presented in this dissertation explores a novel pragmatic therapeutic approach for control, prevention, and treatment of infectious disease using Active-Pharmaceutical Ingredient-based Ionic Liquids (API-ILs) and Groups of Uniform Materials Based on Organic Salts (GUMBOS). Accordingly, several antiseptic- and antibiotic-based API-ILs and GUMBOS were synthesized and characterized using a combination of analytical and microbiological techniques. Overall, this research presents an advanced alternative to combination antibiotic therapy by using a novel group of ionic antimicrobial materials that have controlled pharmacokinetics, improved bioavailabilities, reduced toxicities, multi-modal properties, and potent antimicrobial spectrum of activity as a viable alternative to combating bacterial infections. …

Geometrical And Electronic Structure Of Metal Oxide Nanoparticles On Silica And Alumina, Udaya Indike Rodrigo

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Recent studies demonstrated nanometer-scale combustion-generated nanoparticles cause demonstrable health effects. It is essential to understand the chemical characteristics of these nanoparticles. Since combustion-generated nanoparticles arise in complex mixtures, we employed a dendrimeric method to generate simpler, more reproducible nanoparticles, which were tethered to fumed silica and alumina to provide surrogates for fly ash. We collected XANES and EXAFS data, which are useful for characterizing disordered mixtures where the metal is a minor component. The effect of particle size on structural properties was studied with copper oxide nanoparticles on fumed silica. XANES data demonstrated copper atoms in the nanoparticles are present …