Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

The Ring Theory And The Representation Theory Of Quantum Schubert Cells, Joel Benjamin Geiger

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

In recent years the quantum Schubert cell algebras, introduced by Lusztig and De Concini--Kac, and Procesi, have garnered much interest as this versatile class of objects are furtive testing grounds for noncommutative algebraic geometry. We unify the two main approaches to analyzing the structure of the torus-invariant prime spectra of quantum Schubert cell algebras, a ring theoretic one via Cauchon's deleting derivations and a representation theoretic characterization of Yakimov via Demazure modules. As a result one can combine the strengths of the two approaches. In unifying the theories, we resolve two questions of Cauchon and Mériaux, one of which involves …

Structural And Synthesis Studies Of The Pro¹⁴³ Region Skp1 In Dictyostelium Discoideum, Chamini V. Karunaratne

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

In Skp1 of Dictyostelium discoideum (Dd), Pro143 is located at the N-terminus of an α-helix with four consecutive Glu residues immediately following Pro. Preceeding Pro143 is a segment of random coil. The proline residue undergoes post-translational modifications: hydroxylation and glycosylation. A cytoplasmic prolyl hydroxylase (P4H1) delivers a hydroxyl group to Pro143 and N-acetylglucosamine transferase 1 (Gnt1) transfers GlcNAc from UDP to Hyp143 of Skp1. The installation of the first GlcNAc residue in Skp1 in Dictyostelium is important for the organism to differentiate into a fruiting body to disperse spores. We describe herein some structural and synthesis studies of the Pro143 …

A Comparison Of Smale Spaces And Laminations Via Inverse Limits, Rebecca Elizabeth Targove

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

Inverse limits began as a purely topological concept, but have since been applied to areas such as dynamical systems and manifold theory. R.F. Williams related inverse limits to dynamical systems by presenting a construction and realization result relating expanding attractors to inverse limits of branched manifolds. Wieler then adapted these results for Smale Spaces with totally disconnected local stable sets. Rojo used tiling space results to relate inverse limits of branched manifolds to codimension zero laminations. This paper examines the results of Wieler and Rojo and shows that they are analogous.

Security Analysis Of A Cyber Physical System : A Car Example, Jason Madden

Masters Theses

"Deeply embedded Cyber Physical Systems (CPS) are infrastructures that have significant cyber and physical components that interact with each other in complex ways. These interactions can violate a system's security policy, leading to the leakage of rights and unintended information flow. This thesis will explore information flow as it uses a public channel. In order to exemplify the use of the public channel, a vehicle being composed of the computer system and its operators will show how information is disclosed to an observer. The example is made up of a vehicle traveling across some terrain with an observer watching the …

Hybridizing And Applying Computational Intelligence Techniques, Jeffery Scott Shelburg

Masters Theses

"As computers are increasingly relied upon to perform tasks of increasing complexity affecting many aspects of society, it is imperative that the underlying computational methods performing the tasks have high performance in terms of effectiveness and scalability. A common solution employed to perform such complex tasks are computational intelligence (CI) techniques. CI techniques use approaches influenced by nature to solve problems in which traditional modeling approaches fail due to impracticality, intractability, or mathematical ill-posedness. While CI techniques can perform considerably better than traditional modeling approaches when solving complex problems, the scalability performance of a given CI technique alone is not …

Lexis In Chemical Engineering Discourse: Analyzing Style In Chemical Engineering Research Articles Through A Rhetorical Lens, David Lamar Young

Masters Theses

"This study examines the style of chemical engineering research articles to discover stylistic trends that may be applicable to authors looking to publish their own research. Rhetorical stylistic analysis was used as a research method to allow for thorough analysis of all articles in the sample. Ten research articles from the two prominent chemical engineering journals were chosen using specific criteria to constitute a sample of articles that could most accurately represent the population of chemical engineering research articles. Each article was then analyzed line by line to identify markers of chemical engineering research article style, including the following: ▬Use …

Production Of 1,3-Propanediol From Glycerol Under Haloalkaline Conditions By Halanaerobium Hydrogeniformans, Daniel William Roush

Masters Theses

"With increased demands around the world to make modern lifestyles more environmentally friendly, the chemical commodity market has rapidly shifted. Through new technologies in chemical production, certain high value products have oversaturated the market and have become high-volume, low value waste products. The expansion of biodiesel production offers a prime example; high volumes of glycerol byproduct from this process have shifted glycerol from a high priced commodity to a common waste product. A number of microorganisms are known to synthesize the polymeric precursor 1,3-propanediol from glycerol; however, crude glycerol from biodiesel production creates a harsh environment for most microbes, and …

Role Of Nicotine In Oxidative Stress, Rakesh Kacham

Masters Theses

"Nicotine, a major alkaloid, is present in tobacco products as well as in smaller amounts in potatoes, tomatoes, and eggplants. Although it is the addictive compound in cigarettes, nicotine is believed to play a protective role in neurodegenerative disorders such as Parkinson's disease. Researchers have found that the short-term administration of nicotine may help improve the memory process by reducing oxidative stress in the brain. Our studies have shown that, by blocking Fenton's reaction, nicotine is able to inhibit free radical generation, so this research has focused on the antioxidant properties of nicotine. The cell lines of the alveoli, blood …

Sybil Detection In Vehicular Networks, Muhammad Ibrahim Almutaz

Masters Theses

"A Sybil attack is one where an adversary assumes multiple identities with the purpose of defeating an existing reputation system. When Sybil attacks are launched in vehicular networks, an added challenge in detecting malicious nodes is mobility that makes it increasingly difficult to tie a node to the location of attacks. In this thesis, we present an innovative protocol for Sybil detection in vehicular networks. Considering that vehicular networks are cyber-physical systems integrating cyber and physical components, our technique exploits well grounded results in the physical (i.e., transportation) domain to tackle the Sybil problem in the cyber domain. Compared to …

Robust Control Methods For Nonlinear Systems With Uncertain Dynamics And Unknown Control Direction, Chau T. Ton

Doctoral Dissertations and Master's Theses

Robust nonlinear control design strategies using sliding mode control (SMC) and integral SMC (ISMC) are developed, which are capable of achieving reliable and accurate tracking control for systems containing dynamic uncertainty, unmodeled disturbances, and actuator anomalies that result in an unknown and time-varying control direction. In order to ease readability of this dissertation, detailed explanations of the relevant mathematical tools is provided, including stability denitions, Lyapunov-based stability analysis methods, SMC and ISMC fundamentals, and other basic nonlinear control tools. The contributions of the dissertation are three novel control algorithms for three different classes of nonlinear systems: single-input multiple output (SIMO) …

Part I: Increased Leaching Of Arsenic, Selenium, Molybdenum, And Vanadium From High Calcium Coal Ash Containing Trona Reaction Products. Part Ii: Using Agricultural Byproduct Rice Hull As Biosorbent To Remove And Recover Metal Ions In Water, Yongbo Dan

Masters Theses

"Part I. The trona is being injected to control SO_x emission from coal-fired power plants. The results showed that trona ash leached significantly more As, Se, Mo, and V than the control fly ash did, especially under the natural pH condition. In addition, trona ash had a significantly greater soluble fraction than the control ash. Further investigation indicated that greater amounts of the studied anionic elements in the trona ash were associated with the soluble, trona reaction products. Moreover, the insoluble fraction of the trona ash lost its capability to adsorb these elements under the natural pH condition. The …

Trophic Ecology Of Oxygen Minimum Zone Zooplankton Revealed By Carbon And Nitrogen Stable Isotopes, Rebecca Williams

Open Access Dissertations

Oxygen minimum zones (OMZs) are areas in which midwater oxygen concentration can be significantly lower than in non OMZ areas at comparable depths. OMZs are of great interest because of the limits oxygen availability places on life. The potential for OMZ expansion with warming of the oceans has refocused attention on the importance of these areas and their potential impacts on the global carbon cycle. The large open ocean OMZs of the Eastern Tropical Pacific and Arabian Sea are notable for their size, thickness, and the intensity of oxygen depletion (

Here, I use measurements of natural abundance carbon and …

Generalized Gauss Maps And Integrals For Three-Component Links: Toward Higher Helicities For Magnetic Fields And Fluid Flows, Dennis Deturck, Herman Gluck, Rafal Komendarczyk, Paul Melvin, Clayton Shonkwiler, David Shea Vela-Vick

Mathematics Faculty Research and Scholarship

To each three-component link in the 3-sphere we associate a generalized Gauss map from the 3-torus to the 2-sphere, and show that the pairwise linking numbers and Milnor triple linking number that classify the link up to link homotopy correspond to the Pontryagin invariants that classify its generalized Gauss map up to homotopy. We view this as a natural extension of the familiar situation for two-component links in 3-space, where the linking number is the degree of the classical Gauss map from the 2-torus to the 2-sphere. The generalized Gauss map, like its prototype, is geometrically natural in the sense …

Evaluating The Use Of Autonomous Recording Units To Monitor Yellow Rails, Nelson's Sparrows, And Le Conte's Sparrows, Anna Marie Sidie-Slettedahl

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Population status and habitat use of yellow rails (Coturnicops noveboracensis) (YERA), Nelson’s sparrows (Ammodramus nelsoni) (NESP), and Le Conte’s sparrows (Ammodramus leconteii) (LCSP) are poorly known, so systematic surveys of these elusive species are needed to inform conservation planning and guide management. A standardized protocol for monitoring secretive marsh birds exists (Conway 2009, 2011); however, these species call at night and may be missed during early-morning marsh bird surveys. I tested the effectiveness of autonomous recording units (ARUs) to survey these species by analyzing recorded vocalizations using bioacoustics software. I deployed 22 ARUs at 54 sites in northern Minnesota and …

Movements, Survival, And Sightability Of White-Tailed Deer In Southeastern South Dakota, Trenton J. Haffley

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

To effectively manage white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) populations, managers need to identify population parameters including but not limited to movements, survival and cause-specific mortality. It also is helpful to examine population size and density. The primary objectives of my study were to document seasonal migration, estimate survival rates for female adult white-tailed deer, and generate a sightability model for deer in southeastern South Dakota. Secondary objectives were to calculate seasonal home ranges and document cause-specific mortality. Forty four adult female white-tailed deer were monitored from February 2009 to January 2011 in Bon Homme and Yankton counties. I documented 38 seasonal …

Variance On Topics Of Plane Geometry, Florentin Smarandache, Ion Patrascu

Branch Mathematics and Statistics Faculty and Staff Publications

This book contains 21 papers of plane geometry. It deals with various topics, such as: quasi-isogonal cevians, nedians, polar of a point with respect to a circle, anti-bisector, aalsonti-symmedian, anti-height and their isogonal. A nedian is a line segment that has its origin in a triangle’s vertex and divides the opposite side in Q equal segments. The papers also study distances between remarkable points in the 2D-geometry, the circumscribed octagon and the inscribable octagon, the circles adjointly ex-inscribed associated to a triangle, and several classical results such as: Carnot circles, Euler’s line, Desargues theorem, Sondat’s theorem, Dergiades theorem, Stevanovic’s theorem, …

Fuzzy Analysis Of School Dropouts And Their Life After, Florentin Smarandache, W.B. Vasantha Kandasamy, K. Amal, K. Kandasamy

Branch Mathematics and Statistics Faculty and Staff Publications

In this book authors study and analyze the problem of school dropouts and their life after. The problems can by no means be analyzed by collecting the numerical data. For such data can only serve as information beyond that the data can be of no use, for the school dropouts suffer an environment change after becoming a school dropout. Thus the emotions of the school dropout; is technically involved. A school dropout can be a child labourer, a rag picker or a social miscreant or be in police custody or be in a rehabilitation home if he/she is a runaway. …

Algebraic Structures Using [0,N), Florentin Smarandache, Vasantha Kandasamy

Branch Mathematics and Statistics Faculty and Staff Publications

In this book authors for the first time introduce a new method of building algebraic structures on the interval [0, n). This study is interesting and innovative. However, [0, n) is a semigroup under product, × modulo n and a semigroup under min or max operation. Further [0, n) is a group under addition modulo n. We see [0, n) under both max and min operation is a semiring. [0, n) under + and × is not in general a ring. We define S = {[0, n), +, ×} to be a pseudo special ring as the distributive law is …

Set Theoretic Approach To Algebraic Structures In Mathematics - A Revelation, Florentin Smarandache, W.B. Vasantha Kandasamy

Branch Mathematics and Statistics Faculty and Staff Publications

In this book authors bring out how sets in algebraic structure can be used to construct most generalized algebraic structures, like set linear algebra/vector space, set ideals in rings and semigroups. This sort of study is not only innovative but infact very helpful in cases instead of working with a large data we can work with a considerably small data. Thus instead of working with a vector space or a linear algebra V over a field F we can work with a subset in V and a needed subset in F, this can save both time and economy. The concept …

Improving Public Transit Accessibility For Blind Riders By Crowdsourcing Bus Stop Landmark Locations With Google Street View, Kotaro Hara, Shiri Azenkot, Megan Campbell, Cynthia L. Bennett, Vicki Le, Sean Pannella, Robert Moore, Kelly Minckler, Rochelle H. Ng, Jon E. Froehlich

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Low-vision and blind bus riders often rely on known physicallandmarks to help locate and verify bus stop locations (e.g., bysearching for a shelter, bench, newspaper bin). However, there arecurrently few, if any, methods to determine this information apriori via computational tools or services. In this paper, weintroduce and evaluate a new scalable method for collecting busstop location and landmark descriptions by combining onlinecrowdsourcing and Google Street View (GSV). We conduct andreport on three studies in particular: (i) a formative interviewstudy of 18 people with visual impairments to inform the designof our crowdsourcing tool; (ii) a comparative study examiningdifferences between physical …

Mining Indirect Antagonistic Communities From Social Interactions, Kuan Zhang, David Lo, Ee Peng Lim, Philips Kokoh Prasetyo

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Antagonistic communities refer to groups of people with opposite tastes, opinions, and factions within a community. Given a set of interactions among people in a community, we develop a novel pattern mining approach to mine a set of antagonistic communities. In particular, based on a set of user-specified thresholds, we extract a set of pairs of communities that behave in opposite ways with one another. We focus on extracting a compact lossless representation based on the concept of closed patterns to prevent exploding the number of mined antagonistic communities. We also present a variation of the algorithm using a divide …

Technology Investment Decision-Making Under Uncertainty: The Case Of Mobile Payment Systems, Robert J. Kauffman, Jun Liu, Dan Ma

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

The recent launch of Google Wallet has brought the issue of technology solutions in mobile payments (m-payments) to the forefront. In deciding whether and when to adopt m-payments, senior managers in banks are concerned about uncertainties regarding future market conditions, technology standards, and consumer and merchant responses, especially their willingness to adopt. This study applies economic theory and modeling for decision-making under uncertainty to bank investments in m-payment systems technology. We assess the projected benefits and costs of investment as a continuous-time stochastic process to determine optimal investment timing. We find that the value of waiting to adopt jumps when …

Optical Characterization Of Magnetism In Magnetic/Nonmagnetic Heterostructures, Yichun Fan

Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects

This thesis focuses on the study of the static and dynamic magnetic interactions in ferromagnetic/nonmagnetic heterostructures using interface-specific and time-resolved optical techniques. The goal of this thesis is to elucidate the interface exchange coupling, magnetic anisotropy, and coherent spin dynamics in these advanced material systems, crucial to the realization of high performance spintronic devices.;First, a pronounced exchange bias (EB) phenomenon is observed in Fe/MgO (001) by magnetic second harmonic generation. The bulk magnetization does not, in marked contrast to typical systems where EB is manifested only in the net magnetization. The magnitude of the exchange bias varies with interface oxygen …

Multi-Meson Systems From Lattice Quantum Chromodynamics, Zhifeng Shi

Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects

Systems of non-zero isospin chemical potential ( muI), where the chemical potential for up and down quarks is equal in magnitude but of opposite sign, do not suffer from the sign problem, and normal LQCD techniques can be successfully adapted to study such systems. From chiral perturbation theory (chiPT), in addition to the deconfined phase transition at high temperature at zero chemical potential, another phase transition from ordinary hadronic states to a Bose Einstein Condensate (BEC) state has been conjectured [1] at non-zero isospin chemical potential. Such a BEC phase is of phenomenological relevance in the interior of neutron stars.;In …

Applications Of Holographic Dualities, Dylan Judd Albrecht

Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects

We introduce and review some of the building blocks to what is known as the AdS/CFT correspondence. We then present, using the framework of the correspondence, two applications: one to QCD (Chapters 2 and 3) and one to superconductivity (Chapter 4). The work presented in these chapters was carried out by the author and collaborators during the author's graduate studies.

Improving Security And Privacy In Online Social Networks, Wei Wei

Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects

Online social networks (OSNs) have gained soaring popularity and are among the most popular sites on the Web. With OSNs, users around the world establish and strengthen connections by sharing thoughts, activities, photos, locations, and other personal information. However, the immense popularity of OSNs also raises significant security and privacy concerns. Storing millions of users' private information and their social connections, OSNs are susceptible to becoming the target of various attacks. In addition, user privacy will be compromised if the private data collected by OSNs are abused, inadvertently leaked, or under the control of adversaries. as a result, the tension …

Improving Energy Efficiency And Security For Pervasive Computing Systems, Fengyuan Xu

Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects

Pervasive computing systems are comprised of various personal mobile devices connected by the wireless networks. Pervasive computing systems have gained soaring popularity because of the rapid proliferation of the personal mobile devices. The number of personal mobile devices increased steeply over years and will surpass world population by 2016.;However, the fast development of pervasive computing systems is facing two critical issues, energy efficiency and security assurance. Power consumption of personal mobile devices keeps increasing while the battery capacity has been hardly improved over years. at the same time, a lot of private information is stored on and transmitted from personal …

Real-Time High-Quality Image To Mesh Conversion For Finite Element Simulations, Panagiotis Foteinos

Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects

Technological Advances in Medical Imaging have enabled the acquisition of images accurately describing biological tissues. Finite Element (FE) methods on these images provide the means to simulate biological phenomena such as brain shift registration, respiratory organ motion, blood flow pressure in vessels, etc. FE methods require the domain of tissues be discretized by simpler geometric elements, such as triangles in two dimensions, tetrahedra in three, and pentatopes in four. This exact discretization is called a mesh . The accuracy and speed of FE methods depend on the quality and fidelity of the mesh used to describe the biological object. Elements …

Experimental And Computational Studies Of Environmentally Persistent Free Radicals (Epfrs) Formation, Lucy W. Kiruri

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The first part of the thesis investigates the use of theoretical quantum calculations for the study of EPFRs as the initial and fundamental step in the formation of polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxin and dibenzofuran. The computational model comprised of density functionals (B3LYP, PBE1PBE, and M06) and two types of basis set namely: LANL2DZ for all atoms and GEN (LANL2DZ for metals and aug-cc-pVDZ for non-metals). Full mechanisms of EPFRs formation over (CuO)1-8, and aluminum oxide clusters were studied. The most stable intermediates and products have been determined and compared to available experimental data. In case of (CuO)1-8 clusters, the small clusters are …

Incorporating Science-Based Approaches Into The Rapid Assessment Of Wetlands And Streams : Validation, Restoration Trajectory, And Method Development, Jacob Franklin Berkowitz

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Human alterations within wetlands and streams have resulted in a decrease in ecological functions and associated benefits to society. The scientific literature highlights the functional benefits provided by ecosystems including flood protection, nutrient cycling, and habitat maintenance. Additionally, legislation and regulatory policy require mitigation and restoration as compensation for declines in ecological functions. As a result, the need for practical, repeatable, and technically sound ecosystem assessment methods remains essential to natural resource management. However, few studies determine the validity of rapid assessment approaches by applying quantitative parameters, especially with respect to biogeochemical functions. We assessed biogeochemical functions applied to restored …