Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Classification In The Presence Of Ordered Classes And Weighted Evaluative Attributes, Forrest Justin Osterman

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

We are interested in an important family of problems in the interface of the Multi-Attribute Decision-Making and Data Mining fields. This is a special case of the general classification problem, in which records describing entities of interest have been expressed in terms of a number of evaluative attributes. These attributes are associated with weights of importance, and both the data and the classes are ordinal. Our goal is to use historical records and the corresponding decisions to best estimate the class values of new data points in a way consistent with prior classification decisions, without knowledge of the weights of …

Rényi Quantum Conditional Mutual Information And Parity Quantum Optical Metrology, Kaushik Parasuram Seshadreesan

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This is a two-part thesis strung together by a common underlying theme—quantum correlations. We present some new characterizations and quantifications of quantum correlations and an application of one such correlation—entanglement—for quantum technology.

In Part I of the thesis, we use a Rényi generalization of the quantum conditional mutual information (QCMI) to define and study new measures of quantum entanglement and quantum discord. In particular, using a quantity derived from a Rényi QCMI, we introduce: a) the geometric squashed entanglement, a faithful entanglement measure, which is a lower bound on the squashed entanglement and which reduces to the geometric measure of …

Introduction Effort, Climate Matching And Species Traits As Predictors Of Global Establishment Success In Non-Native Reptiles, Peter J. Mahoney, Karen H. Beard, Andrew M. Durso, Aimee G. Tallian, Arin Lexine Long, Ryan J. Kindermann, Nicole E. Nolan, Daniel Kinka, Harrison E. Mohn

Biology Faculty Publications

Non-native reptiles are often detrimental to native communities and ecosystems and can be extremely difficult to manage once established. Thus, there is considerable interest in predicting the likelihood of establishment of nonnative reptiles. We assessed three hypotheses describing possible factors contributing to the successful establishment of introduced reptiles in an effort to better identify potential invaders.

Crystal Structure Of Bis[1-(2-Hydroxyethyl)-2-Methyl-5-Nitro- 1h-Imidazole-Κn3]Silver(I) Tetrafluoridoborate Methanol Monosolvate, Joshua H. Palmer, Rita K. Upmacis

Faculty Papers and Publications

1-(2-Hydroxyethyl)-2-methyl-5-nitro-1Η-imidazole (metronidazole, MET) is a medication that is used to treat infections by a variety of anaerobic organisms, but there are relatively few reports of the structures of metal compounds that exhibit coordination of metronidazole. We have demonstrated that MET reacts with AgBF4 to give [Ag(MET)₂]BF₄•CH₃OH, in which the Ag^I cation is coordinated by two MET ligands with a trans arrangement. The structure of [Ag(MET)₂]BF₄ exhibits some interesting differences from its nitrate counterpart, [Ag(MET)_2]NO₃ [Fun et al. (2008). Acta Cryst. E64, m668]. For instance, although the two …

Teaching Green Chemistry Principles To Undergraduate Students, Mariya Rozov, Tyler K. Brescia, Lyanne Valdez, Rita K. Upmacis

Faculty Papers and Publications

The environment is affected by the actions of mankind in multitudinous ways, many of which are detrimental, giving rise to pollution and toxic waste, ultimately making our planet less inhabitable. While remediation and new regulations help to prevent pollution and toxic waste, there is also a need to change the behavior of future generations of consumers and producers of new products. Future chemists and innovators are charged with the responsibility of developing new chemical processes and products that not only meet the needs of our growing population (in terms of energy, clean water and food), but also protect human health …

Living On The Margin In The Anthropocene: Engagement Arenas For Sustainability Research And Action At The Ocean-Land Interface, B. C. Glavovic, K. Limburg, K-K. Liu, K-C. Emeis, H. Thomas, H. Kremer, B. Avril, J. Zhang, M. R. Mulholland, M. Glaser, D. P. Swaney

OES Faculty Publications

The advent of the Anthropocene underscores the need to develop and implement transformative governance strategies that safeguard the Earth's life-support systems, most critically at the ocean-land interface - the Margin. The seaward realm of the Margin is the new frontier for resource exploitation and colonization to meet the needs of coastal nations and humanity overall. Here, we spotlight the pivotal role of the Margin for planetary resilience and sustainability, highlight priority issues, and outline a research strategy which aims to: (a) better understand Margin social-ecological systems; (b) guide sustainable development of Margin resources; (c) design governance regimes to reverse unsustainable …

Non-Covalent Ineteractions Of Trimethylamine N-Oxide (Tmao) And Urea In Water, John Prather

Honors Theses

TMAO and urea are important osmolytes. Osmolytes help maintain cell volume with their presence inside and outside cells. Urea is used by kidney cells to neutralize strong osmotic gradients caused by excretion of hypertonic waste. Although urea is for volume- maintaining purposes, it is also known to be a strong denaturant of cellular proteins. The method by which urea destabilizes folded proteins is a debated topic. There is evidence that urea binds directly to amino acid side chains to make protein folding less thermodynamically favored. It has also been suggested that urea acts indirectly to denature proteins by destabilizing the …

Development Of Methods For Determining Dry Deposition Of Mercury Using An Ion-Exchange Membrane: Relative Rates Of Mercury Dry Deposition At Sardis, Enid, And Grenada Lakes, Ruiqi Feng

Honors Theses

This research focuses on studies developing methods to measure dry deposition of mercury (Hg) using an ion-exchange (IX) membrane to capture gaseous mercury species in the air. Mercury is a toxic heavy metal that is spread globally through the atmosphere. Atmospheric Hg deposits to terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems through wet and dry deposition. While routine methods have been developed to study wet deposition of Hg, measuring dry deposition of Hg is more problematic and often overlooked. In this study, we developed an inexpensive means to deploy a polyethersulfone cation exchange membrane in the field by dangling it within a polycarbonate …

Breastfeeding: Physiological And Cultural Influences, Alison R. Cegielski

Honors Theses

Within a biological perspective, breasts are indisputably for the use of nourishment of the young. This can be seen by how mammary glands are used by every other species other than humans. Humans are the only species that also looks at breasts within a cultural perspective, and that perspective is where the debate of breastfeeding occurs. There is really no debate that if given the option to breastfeed, breastfeeding is the best choice for the development of infants due to the fact that breast milk has been adapted for the human physique. In spite of the health benefits associated with …

Effects Of Synthetic Blood Plasma On Calcium Dependent Dimerization Of Ncad12, Brent Treadway

Honors Theses

Neural Cadherin (NCAD) is one of three Type 1 vertebral classical cadherins that function as the primary transmembrane component in cell-to-cell interactions at adherens junctions. Adhesive interactions mediated by this protein are calcium dependent with three calcium-binding sites between each of its five extracellular domains. NCAD is very important in many cell-to-cell interactions because of its function in development and in immune and neurological synapses. Generally, in vitro studies of calcium dependent dimerization of NCAD are conducted in a nonphysiological buffer (NaCl + HEPES: SEC buffer). In order to study dimerization in more physiologically relevant conditions, I created a synthetic …

Heat-Activated Persulfate Oxidation Of Sulfamethoxazole In Water, Yu Qiong Gao, Nai Yun Gao, Yang Deng, Daqiang Yin, Yan Sen Zhang, Wen Lei Rong, Sheng Dong Zhou

Department of Earth and Environmental Studies Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

Heat-activated persulfate to produce highly reactive sulfate radicals (Formula presented.) to oxidize sulfamethoxazole (SMX) in water was studied. The SMX degradation rate was significantly influenced by the reaction temperature, persulfate dose, initial pH, and co-existing anions. Higher temperature achieved higher degradation rate. The calculated activation energy for hot persulfate oxidation of SMX was approximately 130.93 kJ/mol. The degradation rate constant was proportional to the persulfate dose. An alkaline condition favored the SMX degradation. Effects of anions on the SMX degradation were species-dependent. Cl−, (Formula presented.) , and (Formula presented.) inhibited the SMX degradation, to different degrees. In contrast, (Formula presented.) …

Spatio-Temporal Patterns Of Water Table And Vegetation Status Of A Deserted Area, Limin Duan, Tingxi Liu, Xixi Wang, Yanyun Luo

Civil & Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications

Understanding groundwater-vegetation interactions is crucial for sustaining fragile environments of desert areas such as the Horqin Sandy Land (HSL) in northern China. This study examined spatio-temporal variations in the water table and the associated vegetation status of a 9.71 km² area that contains meadowland, sandy dunes, and intermediate transitional zones. The depth of the water table and hydrometeorologic parameters were monitored and Landsat Thematic Mapper (TM) and Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) data were utilized to assess the vegetation cover. Spatio-temporal variations over the six-year study period were examined and descriptive groundwater-vegetation associations developed by overlaying a water table …

Bayesian Semi- And Non-Parametric Analysis For Spatially Correlated Survival Data, Haiming Zhou

Theses and Dissertations

Flexible incorporation of both geographical patterning and risk effects in cancer survival models is becoming increasingly important, due in part to the recent availability of large cancer registries. The analysis of spatial survival data is challenged by the presence of spatial dependence and censoring for survival times. Accurately modeling the risk factors and geographical pattern that explain the differences in survival is particularly of interest. Within this dissertation, the first chapter reviews commonlyused baseline priors, semiparametric and nonparametric Bayesian survival models and recent approaches for accommodating spatial dependence, both conditional and marginal. The last three chapters contribute three flexible survival …

3-D Numerical Simulation Of Carbon Dioxide Injection Into The South Georgia Rift Basin For Geologic Storage, Daniel Eric Taylor Brantley

Theses and Dissertations

This study numerically simulated the injection of supercritical phase CO2 into the South Georgia Rift (SGR) basin to evaluate the feasibility and efficacy of long term geologic storage. The injection simulation modeling was divided into two phases. During phase one of the modeling, very little geologic and reservoir dynamics data was known about the SGR basin. Due to lack of basin data, an equilibrium model was used to estimate the initial hydrostatic pressure, temperature and salinity gradients that represent our study area. For the equilibrium model, the USGS SEAWAT program was used and for the CO2 injection simulation, TOUGH2-ECO2N was …

A Botanical Survey Of Native And Non-Native Species Along The Three Rivers Greenway In Columbia, South Carolina, Rebecca L. Givens

Theses and Dissertations

Baseline surveys are important tools in establishing the present flora located within an area for future monitoring. In addition, knowledge of invasive species presence is essential to help maintain native ecosystem biodiversity. This study aimed to establish a baseline inventory of plant species found along a portion of the Three Rivers Greenway in Columbia, South Carolina, and to create a comprehensive list of native and invasive plant species within this area. In addition, a geographic information system (GIS) was employed to show the spread of a particular known invasive plant species, Hedera helix within the area. Specimens were collected in …

Brand Positioning Map And Analysis Using Web Scraping And Advertisement Analysis, Surya Bhatt

Theses and Dissertations

There’s a significant increase in online consumer forums. When customers set out to buy a product they use these forums to form an opinion. Our research focuses on comparing Brand positioning maps based on consumer reviews. We also analyse the impact of advertisements and expert reviews. Our goal is to show that combining consumer reviews with ads and electronic media will help us analyze the effectiveness of advertising on brand positioning maps. This approach shall also help us in making association graphs for a brand using words of perception/opinion associated with that brand/product. Which may in turn assist companies in …

Complexity In Overmarsh Circulation, Jessica Chassereau Sullivan

Theses and Dissertations

Overmarsh circulation is highly complex with variations in current direction over very short timescales and flowpaths that differ substantially between flood and ebb cycles. Understanding such flow complexities in salt marshes is important because they inherently impact the distribution of sediment, larvae and nutrients throughout the marsh, and hence, the ecogeomorphic feedbacks that control landscape evolution. The purpose this Ph.D. research is to quantitatively evaluate the effects of salt marsh topography on overmarsh circulation in a Georgia salt marsh. This dissertation is comprised of three parts. First, digital elevation models (DEMs) were compared to characterize how well airborne lidar (light …

Proxy Development And Application For Reconstructing The Surface Ocean Carbonate System, Brittney J. Marshall

Theses and Dissertations

Over the last two centuries, human activities have led to an unprecedented rate of carbon input into the atmosphere and oceans resulting in an alarmingly rapid decline in surface ocean pH, a process referred to as ocean acidification (OA). This process is leading to an observed decline in the carbonate ion concentrations ([CO3 2-]) in seawater – an ion that a large number of marine organisms (e.g. corals, foraminifera) utilize to secrete their skeletons and shells. The ability to identify past ocean acidification events using the marine sedimentary record can shed light on future impacts of the modern OA dilemma. …

Illuminating The Interactions And Functions Of Glutaredoxins, Bola Proteins, And Erv1 In Iron Homeostasis, Adrian Colleen Dlouhy

Theses and Dissertations

Iron is a redox-active protein cofactor required for essential cellular functions such as respiration, however excess intracellular iron can generate damaging reactive oxygen species. Understanding how cells regulate iron levels is critical for treatment of human diseases that span from anemia to iron overload disorders. Glutaredoxins (Grxs) with a CGFS active site are highly conserved proteins shown to have roles in iron homeostasis and iron-sulfur cluster assembly, thus earning them the title “the Iron Whores”. They can exist either as a [2Fe-2S] cluster-bound dimer or an apo monomer, suggesting conservation of structure and function. In addition, Grxs interact with the …

Propagated Image Segmentation Using Edge-Weighted Centroidal Voronoi Tessellation Based Methods, Youjie Zhou

Theses and Dissertations

Propagated image segmentation is the problem of utilizing the existing segmentation of an image for obtaining a new segmentation of, either a neighboring image in a sequence, or the same image but in different scales. We name these two cases as the inter-image propagation and the intra-image propagation respectively. The inter-image propagation is particularly important to material science, where efficient and accurate segmentation of a sequence of 2D serial-sectioned images of 3D material samples is an essential step to understand the underlying micro-structure and related physical properties. For natural images with objects in different scales, the intra-image propagation, where segmentations …

Toward The Combinatorial Limit Theory Of Free Words, Danny Rorabaugh

Theses and Dissertations

Free words are elements of a free monoid, generated over an alphabet via the binary operation of concatenation. Casually speaking, a free word is a finite string of letters. Henceforth, we simply refer to them as words. Motivated by recent advances in the combinatorial limit theory of graphs–notably those involving flag algebras, graph homomorphisms, and graphons–we investigate the extremal and asymptotic theory of pattern containment and avoidance in words.

Word V is a factor of word W provided V occurs as consecutive letters within W. W is an instance of V provided there exists a nonerasing monoid homomorphsism phi with …

Assessing The Magnitude And Impact Of Seawater/Pore Water Exchange In Salt Marsh Systems, Carrie Lee Milliken

Theses and Dissertations

Submarine groundwater discharge is a hydrological process that is important to study and understand as it impacts biogeochemical processes and hydrological cycles. Particularly in coastal salt marsh systems, it is an important process to analyze as these systems serve as crucial interfaces between terrestrial and marine waters and particulates. There is evidence that these systems, typically thought to have little exchange across the interface due to impermeable sediments, could actually allow for significant flow of water and particulates at shallow depths. In order to measure and quantify this flow, a method using 224Ra as a tracer has been tested. The …

Trees, Partitions, And Other Combinatorial Structures, Heather Christina Smith

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation contains work on three main topics.

Chapters 1 through 4 provide complexity results for the single cut-or-join model for genome rearrangement. Genomes will be represented by binary strings. Let S be a finite collection of binary strings, each of the same length. Define M to be the collection of medians – binary strings μ which minimize Sigma v belongs to S H(μ,v) where H is the Hamming distance. For any non-negative function f(x), define Z(f(x), S) to be (Sigma μ belongs to M) (Pi v belongs to S)f(H(μ,v)). We study the complexity of calculating Z(f(x), S), with respect …

The Development Of Efficient Geminal-Based Methods For Quantum Chemical Calculations, Brett Allen Cagg

Theses and Dissertations

Incorporation of electron correlation to improve the accuracy of computations remains a driving force in quantum chemical method development. Traditionally, electron correlation effects are divided into static and dynamic correlation parts, and the inclusion of both results in methods that are impractical for large chemical systems. The goal of this doctoral research is to develop a method that efficiently accounts for both components of electron correlation in a separate but balanced manner. The approach focuses on combining a geminal method, called the antisymmetrized product of singlet-type, strongly orthogonal geminals (SSG), with dynamic correlation by either density functionals or a recently …

Chemical Processes Governing The Equilibrium Between Organic And Inorganic Carbon: Probing The Mechanisms Of Iron Catalyzed Reactive Oxygen Species Production, Joy Kelechi Ihekweazu

Theses and Dissertations

This study examines the oxidation of organic carbon that occurs concurrently with the autoxidation of Fe(II) to determine the role that geochemical constituents have on both the autoxidation of Fe(II) and subsequent ROS production. The reaction between reduced carbon and oxygen is thermodynamically favorable, but kinetically proceeds slowly. Fe(II) facilitates the equilibration of reduced carbon and oxygen. This equilibration occurs naturally in saline estuaries, where oxygen rich seawater mixes with anoxic groundwater. We characterized a saline estuary at the Baruch Institute and used those characterizations to recreate natural water conditions in the lab. Using simulated natural water we then examined …

Commutator Studies In Pursuit Of Finite Basis Results, Nathan E. Faulkner

Theses and Dissertations

Several new results of a general algebraic scope are developed in an effort to build tools for use in finite basis proofs. Many recent finite basis theorems have involved assumption of a finite residual bound, with the broadest result concerning varieties with a difference term (Kearnes, Szendrei, and Willard (2013+)). However, in varieties with a difference term, the finite residual bound hypothesis is known to strongly limit the degree of nilpotence observable in a variety, while, on the other hand, there is another, older series of results in which nilpotence plays a key role (beginning with those of Lyndon (1952) …

The Role Of Intermembrane Space Redox Factors In Glutathione Metabolism And Intracellular Redox Equilibrium, Hatice Kubra Ozer

Theses and Dissertations

The mitochondrial intermembrane space (IMS) is a unique subcellular compartment that houses key thiol-dependent redox pathways such as protein transport, mitochondrial respiration, and detoxification of ROS (reactive oxygen species). These pathways are all dependent on cysteine-rich proteins, thus maintaining thiol-disulfide balance in this organelle is crucial for cellular functions. An IMS protein import pathway called the Mia40-Erv1 disulfide relay system uses disulfide bond formation for the import and retention of substrate proteins in the IMS. Erv1 is also suggested to be involved in maturation of cytosolic Fe-S cluster proteins and regulation of iron homeostasis in S. cerevisiae. However, these studies …

Extremal Theorems For Degree Sequence Packing And The Two-Color Discrete Tomography Problem, Jennifer Diemunsch, Michael Ferrara, Sogol Jahanbekam, James Shook

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Lucky Choice Number Of Planar Graphs With Given Girth, Axel Brandt, Jennifer Diemunsch, Sogol Jahanbekam

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Synthesis And Testing Of Photosensitizer-Folate Conjugates And Potential Photosensitizers For Photodynamic Therapy, Jeffrey A. Trautmann

Dissertations

Dissertation Proposal for Jeffrey Trautmann

Photodynamic Therapy (PDT) is a technique that destroys oncogenic (cancerous) cells. It has been used in several countries since the 1980’s. Molecules that contain chromophores can function as photosensitizers, and will absorb light at various wavelengths (that being dependent upon the extent of their conjugation). Certain functional groups, upon absorption of light, can be used to convert O2 to singlet oxygens which are destructive to the cellular environment. Once an in-vitro cell contains a high enough concentration of photosensitizer material and light is able to reach the photosensitizer material, PDT can be used effectively to …