Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Fluorescent Materials For Chemical Sensing, Brian Gerard Imsick

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Materials incorporating fluorescent π-electron conjugated molecular species for sensing and imaging are advantageous over other detection or identification methods such as colorimetric reporters. Fluorescent materials offer easy recognition of binding events due to the highly sensitive nature of fluorescence techniques down to the single molecule level. The properties of fluorescent molecules allow for rapid attenuation of observable readout due to the facile transport of excited state energy via both inter- and intramolecular pathways. This dissertation primarily focused on the development and study of a general platform for ratiometric fluorescent chemosensing using surface-immobilized oligomers, as well as in depth explorations of …

Data Anonymization That Leads To The Most Accurate Estimates Of Statistical Characteristics, Gang Xiang, Vladik Kreinovich

Departmental Technical Reports (CS)

To preserve privacy, we divide the data space into boxes, and instead of original data points, only store the corresponding boxes. In accordance with the current practice, the desired level of privacy is established by having at least k different records in each box, for a given value k (the larger the value k, the higher the privacy level).

When we process the data, then the use of boxes instead of the original exact values leads to uncertainty. In this paper, we find the (asymptotically) optimal subdivision of data into boxes, a subdivision that provides, for a given statistical characteristic …

Exploring The Learnability Of Numeric Datasets, Di Lin

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

When doing classification, it has often been observed that datasets may exhibit different levels of difficulty with respect to how accurately they can be classified. That is, there are some datasets which can be classified very accurately by many classification algorithms, and there also exist some other datasets that no classifier can classify them with high accuracy. Based on this observation, we try to address the following problems: a)what are the factors that make a dataset easy or difficult to be accurately classified? b) how to use such factors to predict the difficulties of unclassified datasets? and c) how to …

Luminescence Studies : Part I. Lanthanide Nanogumbos Part Ii. Near Infrared Photothermal Nanogumbos, Jonathan Carver Dumke

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Group of Uniform Materials Based on Organic Salts (GUMBOS) are a class of molten salts that have been focused to be specifically tailored towards applications. Primitively, from Davy to Walden molten salts were desirable for organic synthesis due to the properties. GUMBOS have been synthesized into nanoparticles (nanoGUMBOS) by various methods to be used for lanthanide luminescence and hyperthermal cancer therapeutics. Lanthanide photochemistry has been frequently studied for its high luminescence intensity, narrow emission band, and stable luminescent lifetime decay. Aerosol-derived europium nanoGUMBOS were characterized using electron microscopy (39.5 ± 8.4 nm), XPS, and spectroscopic techniques. Spectroscopic measurements indicated intense …

A Characterization Of Almost All Minimal Not Nearly Planar Graphs, Kwang Ju Choi

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

In this dissertation, we study nearly planar graphs, that is, graphs that are edgeless or have an edge whose deletion results in a planar graph. We show that all but finitely many graphs that are not nearly planar and do not contain one particular graph have a well-understood structure based on large Möbius ladders.

Subsurface Stratigraphic Architecture Of Pleistocene Sediments In The Greater New Orleans Area, James Ayrer

LSU Master's Theses

A major environmental and economic problem currently faces the New Orleans area, in southeastern Louisiana, stemming from salinization of freshwater aquifers that are important resources for the community. Major pumping of these aquifers has altered the potentiometric flow, allowing saltier bodies of water to flow into the region. The impact of pumping wells on encroachment of saltwater and the time as well as the route for saltwater to travel from the current saltwater-freshwater interface to pumping centers is not well constrained. Water planners need additional information to make decisions about future management of groundwater resources. The most effective way to …

Acoustic Biomass Of Fish Associated With An Oil And Gas Platform Before, During, And After "Reefing" It In The Northern Gulf Of Mexico, Grace Elizabeth Harwell

LSU Master's Theses

With over ~2600 oil and gas platforms (platforms) remaining in the northern Gulf of Mexico (Gulf), the Gulf States have access to one of the most unique fisheries in the world. Because of high abundances of game fishes around platform legs and the popular belief that platforms enhance fish stocks, both Louisiana and Texas have created artificial reef programs based upon the decommissioning of platforms. As oil and gas fields continue to be retired, oil and gas companies may find that “reefing” or toppling a platform may be a more economically viable alternative to complete removal of material. Questions remain …

Impact Of Iudr In Rat 9l Glioma Cell Survival For 25-35 Kev Photo-Activated Auger Electron Therapy, Diane Alvarez

LSU Master's Theses

Introduction: Photo-activated Auger electron therapy is a potential technique that could preferentially target cancer cells. This binary therapy uses a drug containing a high-Z element like iododeoxyuridine (IUdR), which serves as a radiosensitizer and molecular carrier of high-Z iodine into cancer cell DNA. Iodine becomes the Auger electron source when activated by photons with an appropriate energy. This work studied the survival of rat 9L glioma cells with IUdR replacing thymidine in the DNA. Irradiations at monochromatic energies above and below the iodine K-edge (33.2 keV) are part of a larger study from 25-70 keV. It was hypothesized that SER10 …

Effects Of Stress And Water Saturation On Seismic Velocity And Attenuation In Near Surface Sediments, James Michael Crane

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Seismic investigation in the near-surface is complicated by highly attenuating media, large interparticle stresses, and variable water saturation, so new tools and methodology are necessary to understand the relationships between velocity, attenuation, and physical properties of the propagating media. A new shear wave source is developed for investigation of gas-charged, organic-rich sediments because compressional waves are highly attenuated and currently available sources are inadequate. The new source compares favorably to a traditional hammer impact source, producing a signal with a broader-band of frequencies (30-100Hz cf. 30-60Hz) and signal-to-noise ratios (SNR) equivalent to ~3 stacked hammer blows to the hammer impact …

Searching For New Gamma-Ray Sources Using Earth Occultation Imaging With The Cgro/Burst And Transient Source Experiment, Yuan Zhang

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Earth occultation provides a means of monitoring gamma-ray sources over the entire sky. This technique has been demonstrated with the Burst and Transient Source Experiment (BATSE) on the Compton Gamma Ray Observatory (CGRO) active from 1991 to 2000, and is now being used with the Gamma-ray Burst Monitor (GBM) instrument on the Fermi mission. Although this approach provides a powerful wide field monitoring capability, the BATSE and GBM implementations of this technique have so far limited the analysis to a catalog of previously identified sources. In this dissertation, an indirect imaging method is described that permits searching for unknown sources …

Orientation Invariant Ecg-Based Stethoscope Tracking For Heart Auscultation Training On Augmented Standardized Patients, Nahom Kidane, Salim Chemlal, Jiang Li, Frederic D. Mckenzie, Tom Hubbard

Computational Modeling & Simulation Engineering Faculty Publications

Auscultation, the act of listening to the heart and lung sounds, can reveal substantial information about patients’ health and other cardiac-related problems; therefore, competent training can be a key for accurate and reliable diagnosis. Standardized patients (SPs), who are healthy individuals trained to portray real patients, have been extensively used for such training and other medical teaching techniques; however, the range of symptoms and conditions they can simulate remains limited since they are only patient actors. In this work, we describe a novel tracking method for placing virtual symptoms in correct auscultation areas based on recorded ECG signals with various …

Does Pitcher Plant Morphology Affect Spider Residency?, Marc A. Milne, Deborah A. Waller

Biological Sciences Faculty Publications

Spiders are often found as residents in association with Sarracenia purpurea ( Purple Pitcher Plant). Many spiders choose web locations based on environmental cues such as vegetation structure and composition, prey density, temperature, and humidity. To determine if spiders use cues from the Purple Pitcher Plant to build their webs, we conducted a field study using variants of the plant that separated various morphological features: nectar, pigment, and the presence of prey. There was no difference in spider residency across all treatments and no difference in male/female or mature/immature residency. Linyphiids were the most common residents, possibly due to pitcher …

Identifying Requirements For The Invasion Of A Tick Species And Tick-Borne Pathogen Through Ticksim, Holly Gaff, Robyn Nadolny

Biological Sciences Faculty Publications

Ticks and tick-borne diseases have been on the move throughout the United State over the past twenty years. We use an agent-based model, TICKSIM, to identify the key parameters that determine the success of invasion of the tick and if that is successful, the success of the tick-borne pathogen. We find that if an area has competent hosts, an initial population of ten ticks is predicted to always establish a new population. The establishment of the tick-borne pathogen depends on three parameters: the initial prevalence in the ten founding ticks, the probability that a tick infects the longer-lived hosts and …

Harmonized Dataset Of Ozone Profiles From Satellite Limb And Occultation Measurements, V. F. Sofieva, N. Rahpoe, J. Tamminen, E. Kyrölä, N. Kalakoski, M. Weber, A. Rozanov, C. Von Savigny, A Laeng, T. Von Clarmann, P. Bernath, R. J. Hargreaves

Chemistry & Biochemistry Faculty Publications

In this paper, we present a HARMonized dataset of OZone profiles (HARMOZ) based on limb and occultation measurements from Envisat (GOMOS, MIPAS and SCIAMACHY), Odin (OSIRIS, SMR) and SCISAT (ACE-FTS) satellite instruments. These measurements provide high-vertical-resolution ozone profiles covering the altitude range from the upper troposphere up to the mesosphere in years 2001-2012. HARMOZ has been created in the framework of the European Space Agency Climate Change Initiative project. The harmonized dataset consists of original retrieved ozone profiles from each instrument, which are screened for invalid data by the instrument teams. While the original ozone profiles are presented in different …

Stratospheric Lifetimes Of Cfc-12, Ccl4, Ch4, Ch3cl And N20 From Measurements Made By The Atmospheric Chemistry Experiment-Fourier Transform Spectrometer, A. T. Brown, C. M. Volk, M. R. Schoebert, C. D. Boone, P. F. Bernath

Chemistry & Biochemistry Faculty Publications

Long lived halogen-containing compounds are important atmospheric constituents since they can act both as a source of chlorine radicals, which go on to catalyse ozone loss, and as powerful greenhouse gases. The long-term impact of these species on the ozone layer is dependent on their stratospheric lifetimes. Using observations from the Atmospheric Chemistry Experiment Fourier Transform Spectrometer (ACE-FTS) we present calculations of the stratospheric lifetimes of CFC-12, CCl₄, CH₄, CH₃Cl and N₂O. The lifetimes were calculated using the slope of the tracer-tracer correlation of these species with CFC-11 at the tropopause. The …

Stratospheric Loss And Atmospheric Lifetimes Of Cfc-11 And Cfc-12 Derived From Satellite Observations, K. Minschwaner, L. Hoffmann, A. Brown, M. Riese, R. Müller, P. F. Bernath

Chemistry & Biochemistry Faculty Publications

The lifetimes of CFC-11 and CFC-12 have been evaluated using global observations of their stratospheric distributions from satellite-based instruments over the time period from 1992 to 2010. The chlorofluorocarbon (CFC) datasets are from the Cryogen Limb Array Etalon Spectrometer (CLAES), the Cryogenic Infrared Spectrometers and Telescopes for the Atmosphere (CRISTA-1 and CRISTA-2), the Michelson Interferometer for Passive Atmospheric Sounding (MIPAS), and the Atmospheric Chemistry Experiment (ACE). Stratospheric loss rates were calculated using an ultraviolet radiative transfer code with updated cross section and solar irradiance data. Mean steady-state lifetimes based on these observations are 44.7 (36-58) yr for CFC-11 and 106.6 …

Heritable Melanism And Parasitic Infection Both Result In Black-Spotted Mosquitofish, Lisa Horth, David Gauthier, Wolfgang Vogelbein

Biological Sciences Faculty Publications

Male Gamhusia holhrooki (Eastern Mosquitofish) express a heritable pigmentation polymorphism approximate to 99% of males are silver, and only approximate to 1% have a melanic, black-spotted pattern. Sex-linkage, an autosomal modifier, and temperature control the expression of this heritable melanism. In many teleosts, melanin also accumulates around the site of parasitic invasion. We have identified black-spot disease in wild mosquitofish from their native habitat. Here, we demonstrate convergence upon the black-pigmented phenotype through two means: 1) heritable melanism, and 2) melanic spotting on the silver genotype that results from infection with immature encysted trematodes. Females are silver and express greater …

Synthesis And Modification Of Octafluoro[2.2]Paracyclophane (Parylene Af4), Craig Hicks, Brendan Duffy, Gráinne Hargaden

Articles

Parylenes are a class of organic compounds which have gained significant attention due to their application as coatings in areas such as medical devices and electronics. This review highlights the development of synthetic pathways to Octafluoro[2.2]Paracyclophane, commonly referred to as parylene AF4. Methods which have been used to functionalise AF4 are also presented.

The Effects Of Peer Instruction On Ninth Grade Students' Conceptual Understanding Of Forces And Motion, Nicole Congine Harvey

LSU Master's Theses

Because students are often taught physics in a traditional, lecture-based classroom, the present study was undertaken to test whether the use of peer instruction, specifically concept questions embedded within a PowerPoint that allows for students to interact throughout the lecture, affects learner outcomes in a classroom setting. The outcomes from classes taught using peer instruction were compared to classes taught with traditional, lecture-based teaching strategies. Students in five different sections of a 9th grade Physical Science class were given pre-tests and post-tests to determine their learning gains on the topics of motion and forces. In the first unit of instruction, …

Predicting Mechanical Properties Of Southern Pine Lumber With Nondestructive Measurements, Jacob Romer

LSU Master's Theses

Predictive models were developed for stiffness and bending strength of southern pine 2x6, eight ft. lumber using nondestructive measurements of stresswave velocity, density and visual characteristics such as knots, slope of grain and rate of growth. To account for local areas of weakened material due to knots and slope of grain, a grid system was developed to quantify general knot size and location. Multiple regression models were created using these physical and visual measurements. Two sets of models were developed: one that removed influential samples with abnormal wavespeeds (greater than 18,000 ft./s) indicative of poor wood quality; and, models that …

Temporal And Spatial Variations In The Subsurface Salinity Of Lake Charles, Louisiana : An Investigation Of Saline Sources, Alexandria Suding

LSU Master's Theses

One of the most pressing issues facing groundwater managers is saltwater intrusion. In coastal Louisiana this issue is especially prevalent. One location that is currently threated by saltwater intrusion is the industrial area of Lake Charles, Louisiana, where three high chloride areas have been detected within the underlying Chicot aquifer. Three sand units of the Chicot aquifer are present in Lake Charles: the 200-foot (200’) sand, the 500’ sand, and the 700’ sand. Groundwater with elevated chloride concentrations was first noticed by industries in the early 1970s. An initial investigation determined that the northern and southern bodies had formed by …

A Clay Mineral Provenance Study Of The Northern Pandora Trough Continental Margin, Gulf Of Papua, Ashley Len Howell

LSU Master's Theses

X-ray diffraction mineralogy of western-, central-, and eastern-derived fluvial sediments within the Gulf of Papua exhibits distinct and mixed clay mineral assemblages. These mineral assemblages allow for a better understanding of how a thick muddy continental margin shelf-edge depocenter in the eastern Gulf of Papua of latest Pleistocene/early Holocene age formed, as well as connections between terrestrial sediment delivery and evolution of deep-sea deposits in this region. Modern clay mineralogy reveals a high to low gradation of illite/smectite values from the western to eastern Gulf of Papua (Slingerland et al., 2008a), which is applied to the recent past for provenance …

A New Tool For Qt Interval Analysis During Sleep In Healthy And Obstructive Sleep Apnea Subjects: A Study On Women, Kemal Ali̇can Kaya, Bülent Yilmaz

Turkish Journal of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences

By monitoring the Q wave/T wave (QT) interval computed from electrocardiography (ECG) signals during sleep, it is possible to create a link between the ventricular repolarization and sleep stages. In this study, we aimed to find a robust and simple approach to automatically determine the fiducials on each 30-s sleep epoch, such as the Q, R, and T-end points, on long sleep ECG recordings in order to statistically analyze the effect of obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) and sleep stages on QT intervals. This is a retrospective study in which the ECG data extracted from the polysomnography recordings of 7 healthy …

Simulation Of Transient Processes On Overvoltage In Electric Transmission Lines Using Atp-Emtp, Ahmet Nayi̇r

Turkish Journal of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences

In this paper, the mathematical modeling and simulation of electromagnetic transient processes is considered, which is of vital importance for examining the overvoltage phenomenon of power transmission systems. In the mathematical models of the AC power transmission systems that contain a power source, the power transformer, transmission line, and power autotransformer block are presented. The mathematical model of each system component is obtained based on the branch voltages, flux linkages, and branch voltages of the magnetic circuits individually. As for the simulation, an alternative transient program (ATP) environment is used to model the electric power system's elements. One of the …

Integral Polytopes And Polynomial Factorization, Fati̇h Koyuncu

Turkish Journal of Mathematics

For any field F, there is a relation between the factorization of a polynomial f \in F[x_1,...,x_n] and the integral decomposition of the Newton polytope of f. We extended this result to polynomial rings R[x_1,...,x_n] where R is any ring containing some elements which are not zero-divisors. Moreover, we have constructed some new families of integrally indecomposable polytopes in \mb giving infinite families of absolutely irreducible multivariate polynomials over arbitrary fields.

On Pseudo Semi-Projective Modules, Truong Cong Quynh

Turkish Journal of Mathematics

A right R-module M is called semi-projective if, for any submodule N of M, every epimorphism \pi: M \rightarrow N and every homomorphism \alpha: M \rightarrow N, there exists a homomorphism \beta: M \rightarrow M such that \pi \beta = \alpha (see [11]). In this paper, we consider some generalizations of semi-projective module, that is quasi pseudo principally projective module. Some properties of this class of module are studied.

On Characterization And Stability Of Alternate Dual Of G-Frames, Ali Akbar Arefijamaal, Soheila Ghasemi

Turkish Journal of Mathematics

One of the essential applications of frames is that they lead to expansions of vectors in the underlying Hilbert space in terms of the frame elements. In this decomposition, dual frames have a key role. G-frames, introduced by Sun, cover many other recent generalizations of frames. In this paper, we give some characterizations of dual g-frames. Moreover, we prove that if two g-frames are close to each other, then we can find duals of them which are close to each other.

Paracontact Semi-Riemannian Submersions, Yilmaz Gündüzalp, Bayram Şahi̇n

Turkish Journal of Mathematics

In this paper, we first define the concept of paracontact semi-Riemannian submersions between almost paracontact metric manifolds, then we provide an example and show that the vertical and horizontal distributions of such submersions are invariant with respect to the almost paracontact structure of the total manifold. The study is focused on fundamental properties and the transference of structures defined on the total manifold. Moreover, we obtain various properties of the O'Neill's tensors for such submersions and find the integrability of the horizontal distribution. We also find necessary and sufficient conditions for a paracontact semi-Riemannian submersion to be totally geodesic. Finally, …

Asymptotics Of The Ruin Probability With Claims Modeled By \\Alpha-Stable Aggregated Ar(1) Process, Karina Perilioglu, Donata Puplinskaite

Turkish Journal of Mathematics

We study the asymptotics of the ruin probability in a discrete time risk insurance model with stationary claims following the aggregated heavy-tailed AR(1) process discussed in Puplinskaite and Surgailis (2010). The present work is based on the general characterization of the ruin probability with claims modeled by stationary \alpha-stable process in Mikosch and Samorodnitsky (2000). We prove that for the aggregated AR(1) claims' process, the ruin probability decays with exponent \alpha(1-H), where H \in [1/\alpha, 1) is the asymptotic self-similarity index of the claim process, 1< \alpha < 2. This result agrees with the decay rate of the ruin probability with claims modeled by increments of linear fractional motion in Mikosch and Samorodnitsky (2000) and also with other characterizations of long memory of the aggregated AR(1) process with infinite variance in Puplinskaite and Surgailis (2010).

Formulas For The Fourier Coefficients Of Cusp Form For Some Quadratic Forms (Correction To A Paper By Ahmet Tekcan With The Same Title), Bariş Kendi̇rli̇

Turkish Journal of Mathematics

In this study M_1(\Gamma _0(3) ,\chi _{-3}) , M_2(\Gamma_0(5), \chi _5) and M_3(\Gamma _0(7),\chi _{-7}) have been examined and the formulas for the Fourier Coefficients of theta series and the representation number of positive integers by some quadratic forms 3x_1^2+3x_1x_2+x_2^2, 5(x_1^2+x_1x_2+x_1x_3+x_1x_4+x_2^2+x_2x_3+ x_2x_4+x_3^2+x_3x_4)+2x_4^2, and 7(x_1^2+x_1x_2+x_1x_3+x_1x_4+x_1x_5+x_2^2+x_2x_3+x_2x_4+x_2x_5+ x_3^2+x_3x_4+x_3x_5+x_4^2+x_4x_5+x_5^2+7(x_1x_6+x_2x_6+x_3x_6+ x_4x_6+x_5x_6)+3x_6^2, are determined. This work is a correction to a paper of the same title by Ahmet Tekcan [5].