Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Efficacy Of Sunflower Decoy Plots For Blackbird Control And Supplemental Stopover Habitat, Heath M. Hagy, Jon Raetzman, George M. Linz, William J. Bleier

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

Wildlife Conservation Sunflower Plots (WCSP) were planted and monitored during a two-year trial/research program to monitor the effect of decoy plots on blackbird use of nearby commercial sunflower and abundance of nonblackbird migratory species within the plots. In the two year evaluation period, in excess of 975 hours were spent by three researchers in the plots monitoring damage, vegetation, and avian use. We used bird numbers, vegetation characteristics, and landuse landscape variables to assess the optimal habitat conditions in and around each decoy plot for luring blackbirds and providing adequate stopover habitat for nonblackbird migrants. In 2004, wetland and shelterbelt …

Potential Predators Of An Invasive Frog (Eleutherodactylus Coqui) In Hawaiian Forests, Karen H. Beard, William C. Pitt

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

No abstract provided.

Electronic Mathematics, Aidan O'Donoghue

Theses

Recent times have seen an explosion in the use of interactive technologies in the delivery of learning content to students in all educational sectors in Ireland. This expansion has led to the creation of modem day phenomenons such as global and ‘teacherless’ classrooms.

The research study I have undertaken is to determine if students perform to the same standard when learning through an interactive educational software application as opposed to a more traditional setting of learning ’through’ a teacher in a classroom. The application being developed for this study enables students to learn the ordinary level leaving certificate mathematics course …

Feature Based And Feature Free Textual Cbr: A Comparison In Spam Filtering, Sarah Jane Delany, Derek Bridge

Conference papers

Spam filtering is a text classification task to which Case-Based Reasoning (CBR) has been successfully applied. We describe the ECUE system, which classifies emails using a feature-based form of textual CBR. Then, we describe an alternative way to compute the distances between cases in a feature-free fashion, using a distance measure based on text compression. This distance measure has the advantages of having no set-up costs and being resilient to concept drift. We report an empirical comparison, which shows the feature-free approach to be more accurate than the feature-based system. These results are fairly robust over different compression algorithms in …

Incremental Generation Of Spatial Referring Expressions In Situated Dialogue, John D. Kelleher, Geert-Jan Kruijff

Conference papers

This paper presents an approach to incrementally generating locative expressions. It addresses the issue of combinatorial explosion inherent in the construction of relational context models by: (a) contextually defining the set of objects in the context that may function as a landmark, and (b) sequencing the order in which spatial relations are considered using a cognitively motivated hierarchy of relations, and visual and discourse salience.

Spectroscopic Investigation Of Metal-Substitution Of Cytochrome C, Deepthi Kandi

Masters Theses

No abstract provided.

Use Of Bootable Linux Cds For The Delivery Of Educational Course Content, Craig Valli

Research outputs pre 2011

This paper outlines the processes involved in creating and using bootable Linux/Knoppix compact discs (CDs) as a means of delivering course content to students. An outline of experiences in using these CDs to deliver courses in totally on-line mode is also given.

A Faster Algorithm For Calculating Hypervolume, Lyndon While, Philip Hingston, Luigi Barone, Simon Huband

Research outputs pre 2011

We present an algorithm for calculating hypervolume exactly, the Hypervolume by Slicing Objectives (HSO) algorithm, that is faster than any that has previously been published. HSO processes objectives instead of points, an idea that has been considered before but that has never been properly evaluated in the literature. We show that both previously studied exact hypervolume algorithms are exponential in at least the number of objectives and that although HSO is also exponential in the number of objectives in the worst case, it runs in significantly less time, i.e., two to three orders of magnitude less for randomly generated and …

The Probe, Issue 241 - January/February 2006

The Probe: Newsletter of the National Animal Damage Control Association

CONTENTS:
Is NADCA Finished? Is This the Last Issue of THE PROBE
Burning Beast Bummer
CALENDAR OF UPCOMING EVENTS
THE PROBE Archives On-Line
Booklet Review: Unearthing the Urban Fox The Jaguar Caller

Review Of Last Child In The Woods: Saving Our Children From Nature Deficit Disorder By Richard Louv, Colleen Marie O'Brien

Ecological and Environmental Anthropology (University of Georgia)

Like many other children growing up in the suburban United States during the 1970s, my childhood memories include swinging from tree limbs, tromping through the woods, and constructing tree forts in the far stretches of our neighborhood. But what happens when an entire generation of children grows up without such memories? Richard Louv, a New York Times journalist and founder of Connect for Kids, an internet-based child advocacy organization, explores this question in Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children From Nature Deficit Disorder. According to Louv, children today are more adept at naming cartoon characters than native …

The Importance Of Integrative Anthropology: A Preliminary Investigation Employing Primatological And Cultural Anthropological Data Collectionmethods In Assessing Human-Monkey Co-Existence In Bali, Indonesia, James E. Loudon, Michaela E. Howells, Agustin Fuentes

Ecological and Environmental Anthropology (University of Georgia)

This study investigates the interplay between humans (Homo sapiens) and long-tailed macaques (Macaca fascicularis) living in sympatric associations at 11 Hindu temple sites on the island of Bali, Indonesia. Primatological methods were utilized to examine demography, habitat type, and record long-tailed macaque feeding, and ranging behavior. Additionally, interviews and questionnaires were conducted to ascertain Balinese individuals’ perspectives regarding the macaques, local folklores surrounding the macaques, the perceived level of human-macaque overlap, and the degree of crop raiding by the macaques. Ethnographic methods revealed that attitudes toward long-tailed macaques vary, suggesting that human perceptions are determined by religious/local folklores and potential …

An Approach To Resolve Data Model Heterogeneities In Multiple Data Sources, Chaiyaporn Chirathamjaree

Research outputs pre 2011

To gain a competitive advantage, it is imperative for executives to be able to obtain one unique view of information, normally scattered across disparate data sources, in an accurate and timely manner. To interoperate data sources which differ structurally and semantically, particular problems occur, for example, problems of changing schema in data sources affect the integrated schema. This paper presents an approach to resolve data model heterogeneities in databases and legacy systems through mediation and wrapping techniques. The system is well supported by the mediated data model (MDM), a semantically-rich data model which can describe and represent heterogeneous data schematically …

Analytical Solutions For The Electromagnetic Fields Of Tightly Focused Laser Beams Of Arbitrary Pulse Length, Scott M. Sepke, Donald Umstadter

Donald Umstadter Publications

The analytical solution for a monochromatic focused laser beam was recently published [Opt. Lett. 31, 1447 (2006)]. The effect of introducing bandwidth by including a finite-length temporal pulse envelope is included exactly. This is done formally first in the frequency domain for an arbitrary pulse shape, and the specific case of a cosine-squared envelope is then solved analytically for all pulse lengths, thereby decreasing the computation time by 2 orders of magnitude. The inclusion of longer wavelengths reduces the fraction of laser energy in the focus from 86.5% to 83.5% for a 5 fs Ti:sapphire laser and 72.7% in a …

Scaling A Dataflow Testing Methodology To The Multiparadigm World Of Commercial Spreadsheets, Marc Randall Fisher Ii, Gregg Rothermel, Tyler Creelan, Margaret Burnett

CSE Technical Reports

Spreadsheets are widely used but often contain faults. Thus, in prior work we presented a dataflow testing methodology for use with spreadsheets, which studies have shown can be used cost-effectively by end-user programmers. To date, however, the methodology has been investigated across a limited set of spreadsheet language features. Commercial spreadsheet environments are multiparadigm languages, utilizing features not accommodated by our prior approaches. In addition, most spreadsheets contain large numbers of replicated formulas that severely limit the efficiency of dataflow testing approaches. We show how to handle these two issues with a new dataflow adequacy criterion and automated detection of …

Show Me What You Mean! Exploiting Domain Semantics In Ontology Visualization, Ravi Pavagada, Christopher Thomas, Amit P. Sheth, William S. York

Kno.e.sis Publications

Ontologies build the backbone for many life-sciences applications. These ontologies, however, are represented in XML based languages that are meant for machine-consumption and hence are difficult for humans to comprehend. For a meaningful visualization of these ontologies, it is important that the display of entities and relationships captures the cognitive representation of the domain as perceived by the domain experts. In this paper we present OntoVista, an ontology visualization tool that is adaptable to the needs of different domains, especially in the life sciences. While keeping the graph structures as the predominant model, we provide a semantically enhanced graph display …

Taxaminer: Improving Taxonomy Label Quality Using Latent Semantic Indexing, Cartic Ramakrishnan, Christopher Thomas, Vipul Kashyap, Amit P. Sheth

Kno.e.sis Publications

The development of taxonomies/ontologies is a human intensive process requiring prohibitively large resource commitments in terms of time and cost. In our previous work we have identified an experimentation framework for semi-automatic taxonomy/hierarchy generation from unstructured text. In the preliminary results presented, the taxonomy/hierarchy quality was lower than we had anticipated. In this paper, we present two variations of our experimentation framework, viz. Latent semantic Indexing (LSI) for document indexing and the use of term vectors to prune labels assigned to nodes in the final taxonomy/hierarchy. Using our previous results of taxonomy/hierarchy quality as the baseline we present results that …

Data Processing In Space, Time, And Semantics Dimensions, Farshad Hakimpour, Boanerges Aleman-Meza, Matthew Perry, Amit P. Sheth

Kno.e.sis Publications

This work presents an experimental system for data processing in space, time and semantics dimensions using current Semantic Web technologies. The paper describes how we obtain geographic and event data from Internet sources and also how we integrate them into an RDF store. We briefly introduce a set of functionalities in space, time and semantics dimensions. These functionalities are implemented based on our existing technology for main-memory based RDF data processing developed in the LSDIS Lab. A number of these functionalities are exposed as REST Web services. We present two sample client side applications that are developed using a combination …

An Investigation Of Codon Usage Bias Including Visualization And Quantification In Organisms Exhibiting Multiple Biases, Douglas W. Raiford, Travis E. Doom, Dan E. Krane, Michael L. Raymer

Kno.e.sis Publications

Prokaryotic genomic sequence data provides a rich resource for bioinformatic analytic algorithms. Information can be extracted in many ways from the sequence data. One often overlooked process involves investigating an organism’s codon usage. Degeneracy in the genetic code leads to multiple codons coding for the same amino acids. Organism’s often preferentially utilize specific codons when coding for an amino acid. This biased codon usage can be a useful trait when predicting a gene’s expressivity or whether the gene originated from horizontal transfer. There can be multiple biases at play in a genome causing errors in the predictive process. For this …

Science-Based Organic Farming 2006: Toward Local And Secure Food Systems, Charles A. Francis, Katja Koehler-Cole, Twyla Hansen, Peter Skelton

Publications from the Center for Applied Rural Innovation (CARI)

Organic farming includes growing food and fiber—animals, agronomic crops, horticultural fruits and vegetables, related products—as one dynamic and rapidly evolving component of our complex U.S. food system. Even as more farmers are moving toward organic certification and participation in an environmentally sound and economically lucrative market, questions arise about the long-term social impacts and sustainability of a set of practices that has gone from a movement to an industry. Consolidations in the organic trade have brought multinational corporations to the table, as they have observed a grassroots activity that has grown by 20% per year for the past two decades, …

A Molecular Salt Of Tricyanomethanide Anion And A N,N9- Dianisylphenazinium Dication: Cooperative Affects Of Methoxy…Methoxy And Cmn…N+ Intermolecular Contacts, Scott E. Mckay, Kraig A. Wheeler, Silas C. Blackstock

Faculty Research and Creative Activity

A molecular salt of tricyanomethanide anion and a N,N9- dianisylphenazinium dication forms extended supramolecular assemblies that consist of unusual methoxy…methoxy and CMN…N+ intermolecular contacts.

Multianalyte Detection Of Breast Cancer By Fabrication Of Hybridmicroarrays On Polymer-Based Microanalytical Devices, Suying Wei

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Breast cancer is one of the most common and fatal cancer diseases that affect women worldwide. As is true with most other cancer diseases, early detection of breast cancer is very crucial for proper medical treatment because treatment of advanced breast cancer will be much more difficult and inconsistent. Screening and testing of breast cancer biomarkers, either genetic or proteomic, are among techniques used for diagnosis of breast cancers. Nevertheless, none of the biomarkers is by itself sensitive and selective enough for diagnosis of breast cancer, and thus, multi-analyte assays towards detection of multiple breast cancer biomarkers from different classes …

Adapting User Interface To Expedite Physician Order Entry: A Frontline To Ensure Patient Safety, Chiang S. Jao, Daniel B. Hier

Chemistry Faculty Research & Creative Works

Preventable Medical Errors Are a Major Problem in Healthcare. Maintenance of Accurate Problem Lists and Drug Lists in the Electronic Medical Record is Critical to the Practice of Medicine and Patient Safety. We Built a Simulator of a Clinical Decision Support System that Automates the Process of Maintaining an Electronic Problem List by Processing Drug Order Requests from a Simulated Computerized Physician Order Entry System. Preliminary Results Revealed that the Productivity of the System Increased When the User Interface Was Improved. This Study Highlights the Importance of an Enhanced User Interface as a Frontline in Expediting Physician Data Entry, Streamlining …

Residual Stress Distribution, Intermolecular Force, And Frictional Coefficient Maps In Diamond Films: Processing-Structure-Mechanical Property Relationship, Sanju Gupta, Oliver Williams, R. J. Patel, Eric W. Bohannan, P. W. May

Chemistry Faculty Research & Creative Works

Carbon in its various forms, specifically nanocrystalline diamond, may become a key material for the manufacturing of micro- and nano-electromechanical (M/NEMS) devices in the 21st Century. in order to utilize effectively these materials for M/NEMS applications, understanding of their microscopic structure and physical properties (mechanical, in particular) become indispensable. the micro- and nanocrystalline diamond films were grown using hot-filament and microwave chemical vapor deposition techniques involving novel CH4 / [TMB for boron doping and H2S for sulfur incorporation] in high hydrogen dilution chemistry. to investigate residual stress distribution and intermolecular forces at the nanoscale, the films were characterized using Raman …

A Mathematical Formulation Of Dna Computation, Mingjun Zhang, Maggie Xiaoyan Cheng, Tzyh-Jong Tarn

Computer Science Faculty Research & Creative Works

DNA computation is to use DNA molecules for information storing and processing. The task is accomplished by encoding and interpreting DNA molecules in suspended solutions before and after the complementary binding reactions. DNA computation is attractive, due to its fast parallel information processing, remarkable energy efficiency, and high storing capacity. Challenges currently faced by DNA computation are (1) lack of theoretical computational models for applications, and (2) high error rate for implementation. This paper attempts to address these problems from mathematical modeling and genetic coding aspects. The first part of this paper presents a mathematical formulation of DNA computation. The …

Segmental Mobility Of Chain Ends In Poly(Methyl Acrylate)-D3, Burak Metin, Frank D. Blum

Chemistry Faculty Research & Creative Works

Better control of polymeric materials can be achieved with a thorough understanding of the dynamics of their constituents. In the present study, we consider polymer chains as composed of chain middles and chain ends. Even though chain ends do not comprise much of the sample by mass, they may play a crucial role in the ultimate properties of the polymers. Although chain ends have been assigned a higher mobility, as compared to chain middles, there have not been a large number of experimental studies that directly probe their mobility. Among those, the studies of Kitahara et al.1 and Miwa et …

Ecology Of Lesser Scaup Amphipods In The Upper-Midwest: Scope And Mechanisms Of The Spring Condition Hypothesis And Implications For Migration Habitat Conservation, Michael Jason Anteau

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

I tested the scope of the Spring Condition Hypothesis in explaining the continental population decline of lesser scaup (Aythya affinis; hereafter scaup) and explored potential mechanisms affecting female body condition to assist conservation efforts for population recovery. Lipid reserves of females currently are lower than historical values during spring migration throughout Iowa, Minnesota, and North Dakota; females catabolized lipids throughout this area (indexed by concentrations of plasma-lipid metabolites, which accounted for 75% of the variation in mass change). My results indicate that a large segment of the continental scaup population likely is affected by decreased lipid reserves, which could cause …

A Neural Network Model For Classification Of Coastal Wetlands Vegetation Structure With Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectro-Radiometer (Modis) Data, Evaristo Joseph Liwa

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Mapping coastal marshes is an important component in the management of coastal environments. Classification of marshes using remote sensing data has traditionally been performed by employing either parametric supervised classification algorithms or unsupervised classification algorithms. The implementation of these conversional classification methods is based on the underlying distributions concerning the probability density functions (PDF). Neural networks provide a practical approach to this classification because they are essentially non-parametric data transformations that are not restricted by any underlying assumptions. The major objective of this study was to evaluate the ability of neural networks using Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectro-radiometer (MODIS) data to …

Classifying Quadratic Number Fields Up To Arf Equivalence, Jeonghun Kim

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Two number fields K and L are said to be Arf equivalent if there exists a bijection T : ­Ω_K → Ω_­L of places of K and of L such that K_P and L_TP are locally Arf equivalent for every place P ε Ω_K. That is, |K^*_p/K^*2_p| = |L^*_TP/L^*2_TP|, type[( , )_P] = type[( , )_TP], and Arf(r_P ) = Arf(r_TP ) for every place P ε Ω_K, where r_P is the local …

Investigation Into The Dirhodium-Catalyzed Hydroformylation Of 1-Alkenes And Preparation Of A Novel Tetraphosphine Ligand, Alexandre R. Monteil

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The reaction of the tetraphosphine ligand rac-et,ph-P4 (et,ph-P4 = PEt₂CH₂CH₂(Ph)PCH₂P(Ph)CH₂CH₂PEt₂) with 2 equiv. of [Rh(nbd)₂]⁺ (nbd = norbornadiene) generates [rac-Rh₂(nbd)₂(et,ph-P4)]²⁺, which is the precursor to a highly active and regioselective hydroformylation catalyst system. The “key” catalyst species generated under H₂/CO pressure has been proposed to be the dihydrido complex [rac-Rh₂H₂(ì-CO)₂(et,ph-P4)]²⁺, and represents one of the most dramatic example of homobimetallic …

Spatial Distribution Of Anthropogenic Environmental Hazards In The Louisiana Coastal Zone: Implications For Ecosystem Restoration, Melissa Ann Kroninger

LSU Master's Theses

The purpose of this project was to assess the spatial distribution of anthropogenic environmental hazards in the Louisiana coastal zone and implications of those hazards for coastal resources and restoration efforts. Several state and federal environmental databases publicly available on the internet were selected for inclusion in this study. The hazard sites were mapped in a Geographic Information System by geocoding addresses obtained from the databases. Sites with unmatched addresses were mapped to zip code centroid. Hazard types in databases lacking spatial data at the address level were totaled and mapped by parish. Buffers were created at 1, 2, 3, …