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

Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons

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

Louisiana State University

Discipline
Keyword
Publication Year
Publication
Publication Type

Articles 3061 - 3090 of 3417

Full-Text Articles in Physical Sciences and Mathematics

A Parametrization Approach For Solving The Hamilton-Jacobi-Equation And Application To The A2 Toda Lattice, Mohammad Dikko Aliyu Jan 2003

A Parametrization Approach For Solving The Hamilton-Jacobi-Equation And Application To The A2 Toda Lattice, Mohammad Dikko Aliyu

LSU Master's Theses

Hamilton-Jacobi (HJ)-theory is an extension of Lagrangian mechanics and concerns itself with a directed search for a coordinate transformation in which the equations of motion can be easily integrated. The equations of motion of a given mechanical system can often be simplified considerably by a suitable transformation of variables such that all the new position and momemtum coordinates are constants. A particular type of transformation is chosen in such a way that the new equations of motion retain the same form as in the former coordinates; such a transformation is called canonical or contact and can greatly simplify the solution …


The Effect On Water Quality Of Riverine Input Into Coastal Wetlands, Robert Raymond Lane Jan 2003

The Effect On Water Quality Of Riverine Input Into Coastal Wetlands, Robert Raymond Lane

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation focuses on impact on water quality of two freshwater diversions, the Bonnet Carre Spillway and the Caernarvon freshwater diversion, as well as the Atchafalaya River Estuarine Complex. As water passed through the Bonnet Carre Spillway, there were reductions in total suspended sediment concentrations of 82-83%, in nitrite+nitrate of 28-42%, in total nitrogen (TN) of 26-30%, and in total phosphorus (TP) of 50-59%. The Si:N ratio generally increased and the N:P ratio decreased from the river to the plume edge in Lake Pontchartrain. At the Caernarvon diversion, there were reductions in concentrations of dissolved inorganic Si, N, and P …


An Investigation Of A Salt-Dome Environment At South Timbalier 54, Gulf Of Mexico, Robert E. Little, Jr Jan 2003

An Investigation Of A Salt-Dome Environment At South Timbalier 54, Gulf Of Mexico, Robert E. Little, Jr

LSU Master's Theses

Salt domes have been studied in the Gulf Coast region to look at how, why, and where saline waters are located within these field areas. Fluid flow model and pathway studies can be helpful to the research of saline water migration because it can be correlated to hydrocarbon migration in petroleum exploration. The South Timbalier 54 field occurs over a salt dome that sits at approximately 3,048 meters beneath the seafloor. Two major faults were found originating from the salt dome up into the shallow section of the field. The sands were deposited in fluvial, deltaic, or marine environments. The …


Correlation Of Core Characteristics To Outcrop Upper Jackfork Group Turbidites, Degray Lake, Arkansas, Daniel James Golob Jan 2003

Correlation Of Core Characteristics To Outcrop Upper Jackfork Group Turbidites, Degray Lake, Arkansas, Daniel James Golob

LSU Master's Theses

Pennsylvanian age Jackfork Group cores from the DeGray Lake Dam and outcrop from the east wall of the DeGray Lake Spillway, Arkansas, provide an opportunity for a detailed study on the transport and depositional characteristics of a fine-grained, deep-water depositional system. Two phases of resedimentation processes are responsible for deposition of the sediments in the cores and the outcrop. Primary resedimentation processes transport terrigenous sediments from the shelf or basin edge into the middle fan environment, while secondary resedimentation alter the sediments after they are initially deposited in the environment. Debris flows, slurry flows, and high and low density turbidity …


Swimming Performance Of Juvenile Florida Pompano (Trachinotus Carolinus) And Atlantic Spadefish (Chaetodipterus Faber) Exposed To Sublethal Concentrations Of Ethylene Glycol And Methanol: Individual And Synergistic Effects, Mark Alan Stead Jan 2003

Swimming Performance Of Juvenile Florida Pompano (Trachinotus Carolinus) And Atlantic Spadefish (Chaetodipterus Faber) Exposed To Sublethal Concentrations Of Ethylene Glycol And Methanol: Individual And Synergistic Effects, Mark Alan Stead

LSU Master's Theses

Recently, new technology has pushed petrochemical exploration into increasingly deeper water (>305 m) at increased risks to marine fauna. One risk is from chemical additives used to enhance deepwater production such as ethylene glycol and methanol which are used during the production and treatment to prevent the formation of gas hydrates in deepwater wells and pipelines. Juvenile Florida pompano (Trachinotus carolinus) were used in controlled experiments to test the effects of 3.0 % ethylene glycol (EG), 1.07 % methanol (MeOH) and a combination of the two chemicals(EG + MeOH) on swimming performance of individual fish. Swimming performance was evaluated …


Effect Of Temperature On Efficiency Of In Situ Bioremediation Technology: A Laboratory Microcosm And Field Study, Javed Iqbal Jan 2003

Effect Of Temperature On Efficiency Of In Situ Bioremediation Technology: A Laboratory Microcosm And Field Study, Javed Iqbal

LSU Master's Theses

Laboratory microcosm experiment and parallel ex situ bioremediation studies were conducted to study the effect of temperature on in situ bioremediation systems installed at Superfund site in southeast Georgia. Laboratory microcosms, inoculated with PAHs/phenols specific microorganisms, at high temperatures (42±2°C; 107±3°F) demonstrated a significant reduction of residual polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and selected phenols from 4927±1356ng/g dry weight soil to 1158±530ng/g with a kinetic rate of 76.1±16.8ng/g/day (84% reduction; p≤0.01) in 49days. High temperature non-inoculated microcosms were reduced of residual PAHs and phenols from 1117±436ng/g to 341±116ng/g with a kinetic rate of 15.8±6.5ng/g/day (65% reduction; p≤0.01) in 49days. Low temperature …


Compositional Systematics Of Deep, Low Salinity Formation Waters In The Upper Wilcox Of Southeastern Texas, Kathleen (Kt) Moran Jan 2003

Compositional Systematics Of Deep, Low Salinity Formation Waters In The Upper Wilcox Of Southeastern Texas, Kathleen (Kt) Moran

LSU Master's Theses

Overpressured Eocene Wilcox sandstones in the Newton County, Texas Sabine Tram field contain water with salinities ranging from 14 to 28 g/L. The solutes appear to fall loosely into three groups. Na, Ca, and Mg follow systematics previously known globally for saline formation waters whereby their concentrations are controlled by fluid-mineral equilibrium. Cl, Br, I, and B are conservatively diluted constituents of some saline endmember that is not solely connate marine. Potassium does not follow any known basinal systematic, and the formation water is supersaturated with respect to SiO2 by an order of magnitude. Meteoric water is not a probable …


A Stellar Parameter Calibration Of Iue Data For The Determination Of The Present Day Mass Function Of High Mass Stars, Kenneth Thomas Taylor Jan 2003

A Stellar Parameter Calibration Of Iue Data For The Determination Of The Present Day Mass Function Of High Mass Stars, Kenneth Thomas Taylor

LSU Master's Theses

A study of stellar atmosphere models and the photometric quantity R is presented here, with R being the ratio of the integrated de-reddened fluxes from the two wavelength regions of the International Ultraviolet Explorer (IUE) satellite cameras. The effective temperatures and surface gravities of the stellar atmospheres were calibrated against R and absolute magnitude, using stellar evolution tracks from the literature, and applied to over 156 LMC stars whose masses and mass function are then derived from the results. The results show that the effective temperatures and surface gravities of stars derived from R and absolute magnitude correlate well with …


Pcr Inhibition And Toxic Effects By Sediment Samples Exposed To Drilling Muds, Neal Gilpin Satterly Jan 2003

Pcr Inhibition And Toxic Effects By Sediment Samples Exposed To Drilling Muds, Neal Gilpin Satterly

LSU Master's Theses

This study evaluated the PCR inhibition and toxic effects by sediment samples exposed to drilling muds. This information was gathered in an attempt to identify what effect, if any, drilling muds had on the microbial community structure in sediments around four specific oil-drilling platforms in the Gulf of Mexico. Sediment samples were taken before and after drilling had taken place around two platforms (GB516 and VK916), and sediment samples were taken after drilling had taken place around two other platforms (MC292 and GB602). After using traditional, non-selective DNA extraction methods, successful amplification took place via PCR with all pre-drilling samples …


Development And Implementation Of Fine Structure Aerosol Spectrum Coagulation Kernels And Deposition Mechanisms Using Advanced Nodal Method In The Caerot Code, Hyeongkae Park Jan 2003

Development And Implementation Of Fine Structure Aerosol Spectrum Coagulation Kernels And Deposition Mechanisms Using Advanced Nodal Method In The Caerot Code, Hyeongkae Park

LSU Master's Theses

Aerosol transport in confined spaces was studied via numerical simulation using the dynamic aerosol equation, which is Boltzmann?s transport equation at the hydrodynamic limit. Until recent years, there existed no comprehensive computational tool to predict the spatial distribution and time evolution of aerosol size spectrum. A previously developed code, INDASOL3D, solves the dynamic aerosol equation by using a homogenized control-volume based finite difference method applying the group sectional method on the coagulation dynamics. However, quantitative correctness has not been satisfactory. In this thesis, two new codes (SAEROSA, and CAEROT) were developed. SAEROSA computes the time evolution of the size spectrum …


Role Of Eintermediaries In The United States Paper Supply Chain, Sanna Maria Kallioranta Jan 2003

Role Of Eintermediaries In The United States Paper Supply Chain, Sanna Maria Kallioranta

LSU Master's Theses

In an attempt to streamline the paper supply chain, paper industry vertical business-to-business eMarketplaces were established to help industry players to decrease inefficiencies in their supply chains, to minimize negative effects of economic cyclicality, and to achieve better visibility. eMarketplaces rode the hype of revolutionizing the way in which industries conduct business, citing the cost savings achieved by expanded market reach, operational efficiencies, aggregated purchasing, and finding the least expensive suppliers. Adoption of eIntermediaries has been lower than expected in the paper industry and many of the paper vertical start-ups failed when the economy softened and the dot.com bubble burst. …


Stock Price Modeling And Insider Trading Theory, Jessica J. Guillory Jan 2003

Stock Price Modeling And Insider Trading Theory, Jessica J. Guillory

LSU Master's Theses

The mathematical study of stock price modeling using Brownian motion and stochastic calculus is a relatively new field. The randomness of financial markets, geometric brownian motions, martingale theory, Ito's lemma, enlarged filtrations, and Girsanov's theorem provided the motivation for a simple characterization of the concepts of stock price modeling. This work presents the theory of stochastic calculus and its use in the financial market. The problems on which we focus are the models of an investor's portfolio of stocks with and without the possibility of insider trading, opportunities for fair pricing of an option, enlarged filtrations, consumptions, and admissibility. This …


Surface Water Pesticide Contamination In The Upper Terrebonne Basin Of Louisiana, John S. Walther Jan 2003

Surface Water Pesticide Contamination In The Upper Terrebonne Basin Of Louisiana, John S. Walther

LSU Master's Theses

Triazine herbicides are the most heavily used pesticides in the United States. Atrazine and Simazine are the primary triazine herbicides used for broadleaf weed control in the production of corn, sugarcane, and sorghum. Recent monitoring studies of surface waters in the Upper Terrebonne Basin of Louisiana indicate elevated amounts of triazines are running off fields and entering drinking water supplies. Atrazine has been classified as a possible carcinogen by the United States Environmental Protection Agency. Recent epidemiological studies have revealed increases in breast cancer and pre-term births following exposure to triazines at levels detected in drinking water. Non-point source pollution …


Comparative Analysis Of State Environmental Enforcement In Region Six Of The United States, Rebecca Marcus Jan 2003

Comparative Analysis Of State Environmental Enforcement In Region Six Of The United States, Rebecca Marcus

LSU Master's Theses

Through intense studies of agency audits, EPA policies and documents, state environmental compliance data and state agency issued documents, I have evaluated the enforcement programs of Region Six state environmental agencies. The four elements utilized to perform this evaluation were listed in EPA compliance assurance program documents. The analysis was conducted by comparing state program performance in each element. Element 1 is the “appropriate identification of violations.” Element 2 is the “timely issuance of enforcement actions.” Element 3 is the “escalation of enforcement actions when violations continue.” Element 4 is the “ability to assess and collect penalties.” These elements are …


Constraint Preserving Boundary Conditions For The Linearized Einstein Equations, Gioel Calabrese Jan 2003

Constraint Preserving Boundary Conditions For The Linearized Einstein Equations, Gioel Calabrese

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The successful construction of long time convergent finite difference schemes approximating highly gravitating systems in general relativity remains an elusive task. The presence of constraints and the introduction of artificial time-like boundaries contribute significantly to the difficulty of this problem. Whereas in the absence of boundaries the Bianchi identities ensure that the constraints vanish during evolution provided that they are satisfied initially, this is no longer true when time-like boundaries are introduced. In this work we consider the linearization around the Minkowski space-time in Cartesian coordinates of the generalized Einstein-Christoffel system and analyze different kinds of boundary conditions that are …


Multileaf Collimator Positional Reproducibility Evaluated With A Two-Dimensional Diode Array, Kara King Ferachi Jan 2003

Multileaf Collimator Positional Reproducibility Evaluated With A Two-Dimensional Diode Array, Kara King Ferachi

LSU Master's Theses

When delivering the total dose via a sequence of small fields shaped by a multileaf collimator, it is important to consider leaf positional reproducibility. A small error in the leaf position can result in large dose errors to the entire field. This is true for both dynamic multileaf collimation and step and shoot delivery. The goal of this research project is to design a method of quality assurance that is easily reproducible, sensitive to small changes in leaf position, and requires minimal time on the part of the medical physicist to carry out. This paper describes a system of measurements …


Pulsed River Flooding Effects On Sediment Deposition In Breton Sound Estuary, Louisiana, Katherine Wheelock Jan 2003

Pulsed River Flooding Effects On Sediment Deposition In Breton Sound Estuary, Louisiana, Katherine Wheelock

LSU Master's Theses

Louisiana's deltaic coast is a dynamic sedimentary environment made vulnerable by Mississippi River channelization, which restricts freshwater, sediment, and nutrient inputs to adjacent estuaries. Freshwater diversions now reconnect some estuaries with historic fluvial sources, like Breton Sound basin, which receives Mississippi River suspended loads through the Caernarvon freshwater diversion. The project objectives were to quantify short-term sediment accumulation using sediment traps, evaluate sediment trap effectiveness, and compare long-term deposition using feldspar horizon markers and 210Pb dating to the annual sediment trap deposition. Magnitude and variations of sediment deposition at 14 sites were compared during an 18-month study in the upper …


Evaluation Of The Profiler As A Tool For Imrt Qa, Manuel Rodriguez Jan 2003

Evaluation Of The Profiler As A Tool For Imrt Qa, Manuel Rodriguez

LSU Master's Theses

The principal goal in this project is to determine if a one-dimensional diode array, the Profiler (Sun Nuclear Corporation), can be used as a tool for intensity modulated radiation therapy quality assurance (QA). A one-dimensional diode array can be used to measure dose and dose profiles for IMRT fields. IMRT fields for real cases at Mary Bird Perkins Cancer Center were used to test the Profiler model 1170 (Sun Nuclear Corporation). The main concern with the Profiler is that there is not central diode in the array. The absorbed dose displayed in the Profiler window is the average of the …


Computer Assisted Eye Fungal Infection Diagnosis, Madhusudhanan Balasubramanian Jan 2003

Computer Assisted Eye Fungal Infection Diagnosis, Madhusudhanan Balasubramanian

LSU Master's Theses

In this thesis, an attempt has been made to assist the diagnosis of Fungal Keratitis, a fungal infection that occurs in the corneal layers of the eye, by identifying the region of infection in the corneal images using fractal-based features. Three features related to the fractal dimension of the surface of the image, when represented in a 3D using the pixel intensity measure, are used to identify these regions in the image. To reduce the computation complexity, Fisher linear discriminant (FLD) is used to reduce the 3D raw feature to 1D feature, while preserving feature values. Using the adaptive mixtures …


Factors Affecting Participation In City Recycling Programs, Stacy Marie Lockhart Jan 2003

Factors Affecting Participation In City Recycling Programs, Stacy Marie Lockhart

LSU Master's Theses

Recycling consists of diverting or recovering materials from the solid waste stream that would otherwise end up returning to the environment as a potential source of pollution. These collected materials are then used as raw materials in the manufacture or assembly of a new product or package. Over the years the amount of municipal solid waste being generated per person has steadily increased. Waste disposal costs are also increasing, making recycling even more important. To address this issue cities are developing recycling policies or plans. The type of plan varies according to the area; as of this time there are …


Group Theoretical Approach To Pairing And Non-Linear Phenomena In Atomic Nuclei, Kristina D. Launey Jan 2003

Group Theoretical Approach To Pairing And Non-Linear Phenomena In Atomic Nuclei, Kristina D. Launey

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The symplectic sp(4) algebra provides a natural framework for studying proton-neutron (pn) and like-nucleon pairing correlations as well as higher-J pn interactions in nuclei when protons and neutrons occupy the same shell. While these correlations manifest themselves most clearly in the binding energies of 0+ ground states, they also have a large effect on the spectra of excited isobaric analog 0+ states. With a view towards nuclear structure applications, a fermion realization of sp(4) is explored and its q-deformed extension, sp(4)q, is constructed for single and multiple shells. The su(2)(q) substructures that enter are associated with isospin symmetry and with …


Parallel Molecular Dynamics Simulations Of Dynamics Of Oxidation And Reactive Wetting In Metal/Ceramic Systems, Gurcan Aral Jan 2003

Parallel Molecular Dynamics Simulations Of Dynamics Of Oxidation And Reactive Wetting In Metal/Ceramic Systems, Gurcan Aral

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Oxidation of a flat aluminum (111) surface and the reactive wetting of the aluminum (Al) droplet on a flat alumina (α-Al2O3) surface are investigated by using parallel molecular-dynamics simulations with dynamic charge transfer among atoms on a microscopic length scale. The interatomic potential, based on the formalism of Streitz and Mintmire, allows atoms to vary their charges dynamically between anions and cations, when atoms move and their local environment is altered. We investigate the oxidation thickness as a function of time and the oxygen density which is 10-40 times that of the normal state (1 atm …


Coloring Graphs With Crossings, Wei Zhao Jan 2003

Coloring Graphs With Crossings, Wei Zhao

Honors Theses

No abstract provided.


The Use Of The Bang-3 Polymer Gel To Quantify The Three-Dimensional Dose Distribution Of Imrt, Paul Anthony Bruce Jan 2003

The Use Of The Bang-3 Polymer Gel To Quantify The Three-Dimensional Dose Distribution Of Imrt, Paul Anthony Bruce

LSU Master's Theses

The sophistication of radiation therapy delivery techniques at Mary Bird Perkins Cancer Center (MBPCC) creates the need for an advanced dosimetric system that can quantify and verify the dose distributions in three-dimensions. Current dosimetric systems perform this dose analysis in only one or two dimensions. This paper evaluates the application of BANG-3™ polymer gel dosimetry to quantify the 3-D dose distribution of Intensity-Modulated Radiation Therapy (IMRT) using a "step and shoot" approach. The gel was irradiated by 10 MV photons at a dose rate of 400 MU/min. Relaxation rate maps were computed from proton density and T2-weighted magnetic …


Quantifying Habitat Quality Of Larval Bay Anchovy (Anchoa Mitchilli) In Chesapeake Bay By Linking An Individual-Based Model With Spatially-Detailed Field Data, Aaron Thomas Adamack Jan 2003

Quantifying Habitat Quality Of Larval Bay Anchovy (Anchoa Mitchilli) In Chesapeake Bay By Linking An Individual-Based Model With Spatially-Detailed Field Data, Aaron Thomas Adamack

LSU Master's Theses

Larval bay anchovy (Anchoa mitchilli) habitat quality in Chesapeake Bay was predicted using an individual-based model applied to spatially-detailed field data from Rilling and Houde (1999). Habitat quality was predicted using the ratio of instantaneous mortality rate to instantaneous growth rate. Model predictions of habitat quality were compared to field estimates of habitat quality derived from the spatially-detailed field data. Three sets of one-day simulations were performed to estimate larval growth and mortality rates throughout Chesapeake Bay during June and during July 1993. Field-based simulations used field data to estimate the model inputs of water temperature, zooplankton densities, and the …


An Ecopath/Ecosim Analysis Of An Estuarine Food Web: Seasonal Energy Flow And Response To River-Flow Related Perturbations, Laura Lynette Althauser Jan 2003

An Ecopath/Ecosim Analysis Of An Estuarine Food Web: Seasonal Energy Flow And Response To River-Flow Related Perturbations, Laura Lynette Althauser

LSU Master's Theses

Estuaries are often the receiving basins for major river systems which makes them vulnerable to anthropogenic influences. I used Ecopath and Ecosim to investigate the structure of the Weeks Bay, Alabama, USA food web, and the responses of the food web to bottom-up perturbations. Four season-specific steady-state Ecopath models were developed and used to compare the production, biomass, consumption, biomass flows, and higher order indices of ecosystem functioning of the Weeks Bay food web under winter, spring, summer, and fall conditions. The season-specific Ecopath snapshots indicated that the structure of the Weeks Bay food web was resilient. Winter had the …


Field Validation Of Bentazon Phytoremediation, Sajida Begum Jan 2003

Field Validation Of Bentazon Phytoremediation, Sajida Begum

LSU Master's Theses

Phytoremediation with black willow (Salix nigra) was conducted in 1996 by planting trees at a density of 2000 trees/hectare at BASF Corporation in a shallow groundwater plume containing low levels of bentazon. In this project, the roots, stems,and leaves of the black willow plants were extracted and analyzed to see if bentazon from the ground water was taken up by the plants. Different extraction procedures such as liquid-phase extraction and solid-phase extraction were compared. Final determination using different analytical techniques such as GC-MSD, GC-ECD, and HPLC with UV detection for the isolation and analysis of bentazon residues from the plant …


The Effects Of Sediment Grain Size And Oil Exploration On Microbial Atp Biomass, Eric Tyson Guilbeau Jan 2003

The Effects Of Sediment Grain Size And Oil Exploration On Microbial Atp Biomass, Eric Tyson Guilbeau

LSU Master's Theses

Adenosine triphosphate (ATP) is a unique biochemical indicator of active microbial biomass and its relationship to environmental conditions. Its assay in sediments is complicated, however, by adsorptive loss to the sediment matrix and subsequent interferences in the luciferin-luciferase assay by compounds released during the extraction process. Corrections must be applied to correct for these losses and we describe a novel approach using radioactive ATP to correct for ATP adsorption. The sediment matrix also plays a significant role in determining both the magnitude of the ATP pool and the extent of the ATP adsorptive loss. Coarser sediments were found to have …


The Roles Of Silanes As Coupling Reagents And In Deoxygenative Alkylations, Andrea S. Dupre Jan 2003

The Roles Of Silanes As Coupling Reagents And In Deoxygenative Alkylations, Andrea S. Dupre

LSU Master's Theses

Silane reagents play important roles in many areas of organic synthesis. This is primarily due to the ability of silanes to bond to more ligands than the traditional four to become hypervalent (i.e. penta- or hexavalent). This hypervalency causes the silicon center to become more Lewis Acidic and causes the formation of carbon nucleophiles from organosilane ligands. These nucleophiles have been used to perform many cross-coupling reactions with organohalide reagents. The research presented in this thesis reports the utility of silane reagents in cross-coupling reactions of Grignard reagents with alkyl halides. This cross coupling was desirable because the silane should …


Design, Synthesis, And Applications Of Bio-Derived Crosslinking Monomers For Molecular Imprinting, Martha Sibrian-Vazquez Jan 2003

Design, Synthesis, And Applications Of Bio-Derived Crosslinking Monomers For Molecular Imprinting, Martha Sibrian-Vazquez

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Most of the research in the field of molecular imprinting has been focused on the development of new functional monomers, in order to improve the molecular recognition properties afforded by these materials. The role of the crosslinking monomer has often been overlooked, since it is considered an inert component that only provides a scaffold to support the binding sites. However, the crosslinking monomer represents a high percent (80-90%) of the composition of molecularly imprinted polymers (MIPs), which can have a large influence on the MIPs properties. This research addresses the design, synthesis, and applications of new crosslinking monomers for molecular …