Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Effects Of Human Disturbances On The Behavior Of Wintering Ducks, Melissa L. Pease, Robert K. Rose, Mark J. Butler

Biological Sciences Faculty Publications

Human activity causes wintering waterfowl to expend energy to avoid humans at a time in their annual cycle when energy conservation is important to survival, migration, and breeding reserves. Understanding the effects of recreational activities on waterfowl is important to managing natural resource areas where migratory birds depend on wetland habitat for resting and feeding. We investigated responses of 7 species of dabbling ducks to 5 different experimental human activities, (a pedestrian, a bicyclist, a truck traveling at 2 different speeds, and an electric passenger tram). Responses of ducks depended on type of disturbance, species, and distance from disturbances. Most …

Feeding Ecology Of Juvenile Spiny Lobster, Panulirus Interruptus, On The Pacific Coast Of Baja California Sur, Mexico, Verónica Castañeda‐Fernández‐De‐Lara, Elisa Serviere‐Zaragoza, Sergio Hernández‐Vázquez, Mark J. Butler Iv

Biological Sciences Faculty Publications

Many aspects of the early life history of the red lobster Panulirus interruptus are little known, including the relationship between habitat structure, food resource availability, and nutrition of juveniles. We investigated the spatial and temporal differences in food intake, diet composition, and nutritional condition of juveniles at two sites along the Pacific coast of the Baja California Peninsula (Mexico) with contrasting oceanographic and biological conditions. One site (Arvin) is located inside a protected bay, Bahia Tortugas, where the waters are cooler and temperate seagrasses and macroalgae are the dominant benthic flora. The second site (Queen) in Bahia Sebastian Vizcaino was …

Offshore Oil And Gas Platforms As Stepping Stones For Expansion Of Coral Communities: A Molecular Genetic Analysis, Amy D. Atchison

LSU Master's Theses

The northern Gulf of Mexico (GOM) is one of the most productive oil and gas exploration areas in the world, currently containing approximately 3,800 offshore platforms. These platforms serve as artificial reefs in shallow water, which until their introduction was nearly devoid of shallow hard substrata. The question is raised whether this newly available substrate could help expand coral populations in the GOM. In this study, I examined adult scleractinian corals on oil and gas platforms in the northern GOM, in the vicinity of the Flower Garden Banks (FGB; approximately 180 km SE of Galveston, Texas) and attempted to determine …

Do Predator Exclusion, Position, And Plant Architecture Influence Hydrilla-Dwelling Macroinvertebrate Communities?, Jonathan C. Fisher

LSU Master's Theses

Hydrilla verticillata invaded south central Louisiana during the 1970s subsequently becoming the dominant submerged macrophyte in floodplain habitats of the Atchafalaya River Basin. The effects of hydrilla on littoral habitat structure, water quality, fish, and macroinvertebrates have been pervasive, and I hypothesized that dense hydrilla stands would also impact vertebrate predation on resident macroinvertebrates, although predation effects would likely be mediated by bed position. During 2003 and 2004, I conducted exclosure experiments in the Atchafalaya River Basin with artificial substrates to test for variations in hydrilla bed macroinvertebrate communities caused by predation, plant architecture, and bed position. To determine invertebrates …

Restoration Success Of Backfilling Canals In Coastal Louisiana Marshes, Joseph Baustian

LSU Master's Theses

The need for effective marsh restoration techniques in Louisiana is a pressing issue as the state continues to lose coastal wetlands. Returning spoil banks to canals, known as "backfilling", is an attractive restoration option because it restores marsh, prevents future wetland loss, and is cost effective. The direct conversion of marsh to canals and spoil banks accounted for over 22% of Louisiana's wetland loss from 1930 to 1990, and the indirect losses associated with canal dredging are even larger. The restoration success of 30 canals, backfilled twenty years ago, was examined in this study and compared to restoration success shortly …

Population And Sustainability, Geoffrey Mcnicoll

Poverty, Gender, and Youth

Sustainability refers to the preservation of human-valued natural capital—the resources that provide environmental services—at a level sufficient to assure the well-being of future generations. This Population Council working paper assess the effects on the total and per capita availability of those services. The degradation of environmental services—exemplified by the overuse of aquifers or (at a global level) of the atmospheric carbon sink—is a significant threat to sustainable development, one that is often exacerbated by population growth. The critical management issue in such cases is the design of effective governing institutions to restrain service demand and safeguard supply. Uncertainties arising from …

Perrennial Grassess - Are They For Me? Workshop Development Guide For Facilitators, Trevor Lacey

Agriculture reports

Farmers will be able to recognise landscape components on their farm that are at risk of salinity (current, imminent or future) and be aware of a range of available options available to them in managing this risk.

Step Workshops - Guide For Facilitators, Department Of Agriculture And Food, Western Australia

Agriculture reports

The STEP workshops can be run as independent modules or as part of the ?A Million Hectares for the Future? workshop series of which the overarching learning outcome is: Participants will be able to identify and make informed decisions to profitably manage salinity on their farms. Outlines the preferred pathway for the modules in the Million Hectares for the Future series.

Introduction To Salinity - Workshop Development Guide For Facilitator, T M. Lacey

Agriculture reports

Participants will be able to recognise landscape components on their farm, which are at risk of salinity (current, imminent or future) and will be aware of a range of available options available to them to managing this risk.

Synthesis Of Gold Nanoparticles Attached To Polypyrrole Nanofibers, Sunil K. Pillalamarri, Frank D. Blum, Massimo F. Bertino

Chemistry Faculty Research & Creative Works

Polypyrrole is a frequently studied conducting polymer due to its application in sensing and catalysis.1 Polypyrrole is considered among the most promising conductive polymers due to its stability and ease of conversion between conducting and insulating forms.2 Different chemical and electrochemical methods are generally used in the synthesis of polypyrrole.2 Despite many interesting applications, the use of polypyrrole is limited because of difficulty in processing it. Several approaches have been explored to improve the ability to process polypyrrole, including the use of emulsion, inverse emulsion, steric stabilizer, and microemulsion methods.1 Several reports have also been published on the synthesis of …

Platform Recruited Reef Fish, Phase I: Do Platforms Provide Habitat That Increase The Survival Of Juvenile Reef Fishes?, Lauren Kay Nowling

LSU Master's Theses

There are currently over 4000 functioning oil and gas platforms in the northern Gulf of Mexico (Gulf). Platform operations, and their prior drilling operations, produce trace amounts of lead, barium, vanadium, and lanthanum residues that are leached into the surrounding waters and are deposited on the sea floor. These residues have isotopic ratios different from those typical of the Gulf seafloor and can be used as harmless ‘fingerprints’ if they become incorporated into hard-parts or tissues in fishes associated with oil and gas platforms. From 2002 to 2004, 115 red snapper were collected from oil and gas platforms and artificial …

Nekton Utilization Of Black Mangrove (Avicennia Germinans) And Smooth Cordgrass (Spartina Alterniflora) Sites In Southwestern Caminada Bay, Louisiana, Melanie Christine Caudill

LSU Master's Theses

This is the first study to compare nekton use and habitat value among Spartina alterniflora (Spartina), Avicennia germinans (black mangrove), and transition (S. alterniflora and A. germinans) sites within Louisiana's salt marsh-mangrove ecotone. Fishes and crustaceans were collected in Caminada Bay during fall 2003 and spring 2004 using 4 m2, bottomless lift nets. Although analyses were unable to demonstrate significant differences in fish (p=0.0753) and crustacean (p=0.1457) densities and species composition (p=0.8801) across sites, habitat-specific trends in nekton use were evident. Fishes, including gulf killifish and sheepshead minnows, showed affinities for the Spartina site, while crustaceans, especially white shrimp, were …

Sensorsimulator: Simulation Framework For Sensor Networks, Cariappa D. Mallanda

LSU Master's Theses

Wireless sensor networks have the potential to become significant subsystems of engineering applications. Before relegating important and safety-critical tasks to such subsystems, it is necessary to understand the dynamic behavior of these subsystems in simulation environments. There is an urgent need to develop a simulation platform that is useful to explore both the networking issues and the distributed computing aspects of wireless sensor networks. Current approaches to simulating wireless sensor networks largely focus on the networking issues. These approaches use well-known network simulation tools that are often difficult to extend to explore distributed computing issues. Discrete-event simulation is a trusted …

Naturally-Derived Porphyrin And Chlorin Photosensitizers For Photodynamic Therapy, Jodie Angela Hargus

LSU Master's Theses

In oncologic applications of photodynamic therapy (PDT), the discriminating localization of porphyrin-type compounds in solid tumors is exploited for the selective ablation of neoplastic tissue with minimal destruction and irritation to normal tissue. PDT is a locoregional, binary cancer therapy in which a photosensitizer—light-activated drug—absorbs light of an appropriate wavelength and excites to the singlet state. This photosensitizer in the excited singlet state can undergo an internal transition to the excited triplet state, a relatively long-lived and high-energy species that transfers its excess energy to molecular oxygen. Molecular oxygen subsequently excites from the stable triplet state to the highly reactive …

Effects Of White-Tailed Deer Herbivory On The Growth And Survival Of Seedlings In A Coastal Wetland Forest, Seth Taylor Bordelon

LSU Master's Theses

Studies in upland forests of the northeastern and upper mid-western U.S. indicate that high densities of white-tailed deer can reduce vegetation abundance, survival, and richness through over-browsing. In the southern U.S., few studies have examined the effects of deer herbivory on vegetation, and even fewer have done so in forested wetlands. At Jean Lafitte National Park's Barataria Preserve in south Louisiana, managers were concerned that white-tailed deer were concentrating and limiting forest regeneration near a walking trail, where hunting is not allowed. An exclosure study was started there in December 2002 and was conducted through July 2004 to quantify the …

Linear Versus Cyclic Inorganic/Organic Hybrid Oligomeric Molecules, Christopher Roland Sparrow

LSU Master's Theses

The synthesis of the new aryl bis(β-diketone) ligand m-phenylenebis(acetylacetone) (m-pbaH2) allowed for complexation with copper(II) to form a 4-membered ring Cu4(m-pba)4. An alternate route, via a phospholene adduct, was implemented after difficulties in preparing the ligand via an azo sulfide conversion from m-phenylenediamine. The connection of two m-pba ligands coordinated to a Cu(II) metal ion causes a distortion along the axial position of the metal center. The pore has a diameter of (Cu-----Cu = 14.317 Å) when viewing opposite metal centers. An open coordination site along Cu(II) axial position may facilitate host-guest binding interactions. The concave shape of the host …

The Asymptotic Z-Transform, Scott Jude Champagne

LSU Master's Theses

Sequences of numbers and transformations from sequences to functions have been studied extensively, including the multiplication of two sequences through convolution and the equivalent multiplication of functions. The focal points of this thesis are the convolution field of causal sequences and their Z-transforms. Classically, the treatment of the Z-transform has been limited to those causal sequences for which the power series has a nontrivial radius of convergence. In this thesis it is shown that the Z-transform can be extended to all causal sequences without compromising any of the operational properties of the classical Z-transform.

Detection And Evaluation Of Temperature Effects On Cell Proliferation In Somatic Tissues Of The Eastern Oyster, Crassostrea Virginica, By Flow Cytometry, Fernando Jimenez

LSU Master's Theses

The goal of this thesis was to evaluate temperature effects on cell proliferation of eastern oyster somatic tissues for the development of an oyster cell line. Understanding the in vivo cell proliferation of an organism is essential for the development of cell culture. Cell proliferation can be measured by identifying nuclear cellular proteins involved in growth regulation and cellular transformation. The primary objectives of this study were to: 1) develop an assay to evaluate cell proliferation, 2) develop an assay to analyze nuclear RNA content, and 3) evaluate temperature effects on cell proliferation in somatic tissues. Proliferating cell nuclear antigen …

Sulfur And Oxygen Isotope Characterization Of An Eocene Playa Deposit, Northern High Plains, And Rainwater Sulfate, Baton Rouge, Usa, Kathryn Ann Jenkins

LSU Master's Theses

This thesis is composed of two independent chapters which are linked through the application of multiple stable isotope measurements of sulfate. Chapter 1 compares two Cenozoic playa deposits in the northern High Plains. Anomalous playa sulfate was discovered at Scotts Bluff which is speculated to have originated via the oxidation of volcanically emitted reduced sulfur gases. A question arises, then, is a volcanic origin of sulfate common for other Cenozoic playa deposits in the region. A complete stable isotope characterization was performed on the gypsum sulfate collected at Wolf Butte (nearby apparent playa setting) to determine if the sulfate has …

A Bioeconomic Supply Model For Louisiana Nutria And Impacts On Wetlands Conservation Associated With Economic Incentives, Cheikhna Ould Dedah

LSU Master's Theses

Nutria (Mayocastor) were first introduced to Louisiana in 1938. With few natural predators and high prolific productivity, they became well established in the surrounding coastal marsh within a few years. Prior to 1980’s, as a result of high demand for nutria products from European countries, harvest pressure was sufficient to keep the population in ‘check’ with their wetlands capacity. By the mid-1980’s, however, prices had fallen sharply, culminating in declining annual harvests and an increasing population. Because of their feeding habits, the increased nutria population has resulted in a substantial amount of wetland degradation. In this thesis, a long-run bioeconomic …

Denial Of Service Attack Techniques: Analysis, Implementation And Comparison, Khaled M. Elleithy, Drazen Blagovic, Wang K. Cheng, Paul Sideleau

School of Computer Science & Engineering Faculty Publications

A denial of service attack (DOS) is any type of attack on a networking structure to disable a server from servicing its clients. Attacks range from sending millions of requests to a server in an attempt to slow it down, flooding a server with large packets of invalid data, to sending requests with an invalid or spoofed IP address. In this paper we show the implementation and analysis of three main types of attack: Ping of Death, TCP SYN Flood, and Distributed DOS. The Ping of Death attack will be simulated against a Microsoft Windows 95 computer. The TCP SYN …

A Short Proof Of A Characterization Of Inner Functions In Terms Of The Composition Operators They Induce, Valentin Matache

Mathematics Faculty Publications

The paper contains a new proof for the sufficiency in Joel H. Shapiro’s recent characterization of inner functions...

System Design And Optimization Of Optical Coherence Tomography, Avni Ceyhun Akcay

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Optical coherence imaging, including tomography (OCT) and microscopy (OCM), has been a growing research field in biomedical optical imaging in the last decade. In this imaging modality, a broadband light source, thus of short temporal coherence length, is used to perform imaging via interferometry. A challenge in optical coherence imaging, as in any imaging system towards biomedical diagnosis, is the quantification of image quality and optimization of the system components, both a primary focus of this research. We concentrated our efforts on the optimization of the imaging system from two main standpoints: axial point spread function (PSF) and practical steps …

Features Of Daily Variation In Cosmic Ray Intensity During High/Low Amplitude Events, Rajesh K. Mishra, Rekha Agarwal Mishra

Turkish Journal of Physics

A detailed study has been conducted on the long-term changes in the diurnal, semi-diurnal and tri-diurnal anisotropy of cosmic rays in terms of the high/low amplitude anisotropic wave train events (HAE/LAE) during the period 1981--94 using the neutron monitor data from the Deep River neutron monitoring station. In all, 38 HAE and 28 LAE cases have been studied. An inter-comparison of the first three harmonics during these events has been made so as to understand the basic reason causing the occurrence of these types of events. It has been observed that the phase of diurnal anisotropy shifts towards earlier hours …

Photoconductivity Of Selenium And Sulphur Doped A-Si:H Thin Films, Sanjeev Kumar Sharma, Himanshu Gupta, Rajendra Kumar, Ram Mohan Mehra

Turkish Journal of Physics

This paper presents a study of photoconductivity of S- and Se-doped a-Si:H as a function of composition and temperature. Temperature dependence of photoconductivity of the films was measured under the illumination of white light at 100~mW/cm^2. The room temperature photoconductivity for the same doping concentration of 10^{-4} (to develop H_2Se/SiH_4 and H_2S/SiH_4) is found to be higher in Se-doped -- than S-doped -- a-Si:H film due to a low defect density. From the measurement of intensity dependence of photoconductivity, it is found that the addition of Se and S changes the recombination mechanism from monomolecular, for low-doped films, to bimolecular …

Study Of Density Of Localized States In A-Se_{100 - X}Sb_X Films By Space Charge Limited Conduction Measurements, V. S. Kushwaha, Santosh Kumar, A. Kumar

Turkish Journal of Physics

The present paper reports dc conductivity measurements at high electric fields in vacuum evaporated a-Se_{1 - x}Sb_x (x = 0, 0.02, 0.04, 0.06) thin films. At high fields (~ 10^4 V .cm^{-1}), current can be modelled by the theory of space charge-limited conduction in the case of uniform distribution of localised states in the mobility gap of these materials. The addition of Sb in Se results in an increase in the density of localised states.

Unsteady Couette Flow With Heat Transfer Considering Ion-Slip, Hazem Ali Attia

Turkish Journal of Physics

The unsteady Couette flow of an electrically conducting, viscous, incompressible fluid bounded by two parallel non-conducting porous plates is studied with heat transfer taking ion-slip into consideration. An external uniform magnetic field and a uniform suction and injection are applied perpendicular to the plates while the fluid motion is subjected to a constant pressure gradient. The two plates are kept at different but constant temperatures while the Joule and viscous dissipations are included in the energy equation. The effect of ion-slip an uniform suction and injection on both the velocity and temperature distributions is examined.

Spatiotemporal Patterns And Changes In Missouri River Fishes, David L. Galat, Charles R. Berry, William M. Gardner, Jeff C. Hendrickson, Gerald E. Mestl, Greg J. Power, Clifton Stone, Matthew R. Winston

Nebraska Game and Parks Commission: Staff Research Publications

The longest river in North America, the Missouri, trends southeast from Montana across the mid continent of the United States, 3,768 km to its confluence with the Mississippi River near St. Louis, Missouri. Frequent flooding, a shifting, braided channel, and high turbidity characterized the precontrol “Big Muddy.” Major alterations occurred over the past century primarily for flood protection, navigation, irrigation, and power production. Today, the middle one-third of its length is impounded into the largest volume reservoir complex in the United States and the lower one-third is channelized, leveed, and its banks stabilized.

Spatial and temporal patterns of Missouri River …

Stratigraphy Of The Volcanic Products Around Nemrut Caldera: Implications For Reconstruction Of The Caldera Formation, Özgür Karaoğlu, Yavuz Özdemi̇r, A. Ümi̇t Tolluoğlu, Mustafa Karabiyikoğlu, Onur Köse, Jean-Luc Froger

Turkish Journal of Earth Sciences

The volcanological development of the Nemrut stratovolcano, located near the southwestern tip of Lake Van in eastern Turkey, is subdivided into three stages: pre-caldera, post-caldera and late stages. Two ignimbrite flows have been recognized in the pre-caldera stage. The earlier of the two occurred after basaltic lavas formed along extensional fissures. The latter, which forms the main subject of this paper, was a major flow associated with the development of the Nemrut caldera. The pyroclastic deposits of the Nemrut volcano in the pre-caldera stage are divided into three phases on the basis of palaeosols that separate them. The first phase …

Attribute-Level Versioning: A Relational Mechanism For Version Storage And Retrieval, Charles Andrew Bell

Theses and Dissertations

Data analysts today have at their disposal a seemingly endless supply of data and repositories hence, datasets from which to draw. New datasets become available daily thus making the choice of which dataset to use difficult. Furthermore, traditional data analysis has been conducted using structured data repositories such as relational database management systems (RDBMS). These systems, by their nature and design, prohibit duplication for indexed collections forcing analysts to choose one value for each of the available attributes for an item in the collection. Often analysts discover two or more datasets with information about the same entity. When combining this …