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Reality And Rhetoric: U.S. Foreign Policy And Egypt's Arab Spring, Shiri Moshe Apr 2014

Reality And Rhetoric: U.S. Foreign Policy And Egypt's Arab Spring, Shiri Moshe

Undergraduate Student Symposium

The Arab Spring, a series of revolutionary civil uprisings that swept across the Middle East and North Africa in 2011, has drastically transformed the Egyptian political sphere. Egypt, designated a major nonNATO ally by the United States (Foreign Assistance Act, 1989), is one of the largest recipients of U.S. economic and military assistance. Its domestic developments have consequently been of major interest to the Obama administration. Drawing from relevant executive statements and releases, major news media and Congressional Research Service reports, and peer-reviewed publications, my research delineates the public rhetoric and actions of the U.S. executive office towards the state …

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Synthesis And Characterization Of Oxindole Derivatives; Potential Antibacterial, Antimitotic, And Antitumor Applications, Karem Molinares, Bansi Savla, Kaitlyn Pope Apr 2014

Synthesis And Characterization Of Oxindole Derivatives; Potential Antibacterial, Antimitotic, And Antitumor Applications, Karem Molinares, Bansi Savla, Kaitlyn Pope

Undergraduate Student Symposium

In the recent years, analogues of Indolin-2-one (2-oxindole) have been found to be highly effective in inhibition of pro-inflammatory cytokine IL-2 of Multiple Sclerosis. Researchers around the world have focused on methodical modification at several key locations of the molecule with the intent of studying the biological activities. In that line, this research focuses on the synthesis of Knoevenagel adducts with a variety of aromatic aldehydes. In this research, sixteen derivatives of 2-oxindole have been synthesized and characterized by traditional techniques (melting point, FT- IR, and NMR). The potential use of these derivatives is initially to study the anti-bacterial and …

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Tetraphenylporphyrin Derivatives And Octalkyl Porphyrin Interactions In Cancer Cells, Biana Modilevsky Apr 2014

Tetraphenylporphyrin Derivatives And Octalkyl Porphyrin Interactions In Cancer Cells, Biana Modilevsky

Undergraduate Student Symposium

Synthetic porphyrin molecules are commonly studied as photosensitizing agents in photodynamic therapy as a form of cancer treatment. The porphyrin molecules target cell organelles to induce cellular apoptosis, or navigate toward the cellular membrane, causing tissue necrosis. This porphyrin activity is primarily undetectable and only activated under the exposure of light. The chemical structure and properties of porphyrin compounds have varying effects on their success and viability in this treatment. The study of tetraphenylporphyrin derivatives and octalkyl porphyrin compounds can be implemented in finding suitable compounds for this technique.

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The Effect Of Physical Stress On Alpha Amylase Concentration In Saliva, Neil Thackar, Crystal Labozzetta Apr 2014

The Effect Of Physical Stress On Alpha Amylase Concentration In Saliva, Neil Thackar, Crystal Labozzetta

Undergraduate Student Symposium

Alpha amylase is an enzyme found in saliva, and is integral in the breakdown of large polysaccharides such as starch and glycogen. In addition, it also increases in response to physical stress, making it a useful indicator for pain threshold. In an attempt to determine the viability of using alpha amylase as a pain threshold indicator, alpha amylase concentrations were taken before and after an introduction to physical stress. 16 subjects (M= 22.13, SD= 5.67) were asked how sensitive they are to pain (high responder/low responder), and to rate the expected pain level (in response to the physical stress) on …

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The Excessive Political Dominance Over Doctors: How Texas' Newest Abortion Regulations Violate Women's Constitutional Rights, Louize Fiore Apr 2014

The Excessive Political Dominance Over Doctors: How Texas' Newest Abortion Regulations Violate Women's Constitutional Rights, Louize Fiore

Undergraduate Student Symposium

Texas has enacted several new anti-abortion legislations under the false interest of regulating the medical profession while directly placing an obstacle on women’s ability to obtain an abortion. The most recent illustration of this overreach is the newest Texas Health and Safety Code §171.0031, which requires that physicians have an agreement with a hospital within 30 miles of the clinic in order to have hospital admitting privileges. This statute does not provide an exemption for medical emergencies in order to preserve the patient’s health or life and insures that twenty-four (24) counties in Rio Grande Valley in Texas will be …

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The Nba Draft: The Opportunity Costs Of Early Entry, Tiffany Kelly Apr 2014

The Nba Draft: The Opportunity Costs Of Early Entry, Tiffany Kelly

Undergraduate Student Symposium

From 1997 to 2010, the number of basketball, collegiate athletes to declare early entry into the NBA draft has significantly increased. The National Basketball Association created a rookie pay scale in the year 1995 that established a set amount players can receive during his rookie contract based on draft position. The rookie pay scale helped all1 teams to add new, unproven players at a reasonable price while keeping veteran players content with larger contracts. However, the pay scale not only created a distribution of salary, but also created more of an incentive for collegiate players to declare early entry …

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Unquestionable Misogyny In The Video Game Industry, Christopher Rosario Apr 2014

Unquestionable Misogyny In The Video Game Industry, Christopher Rosario

Undergraduate Student Symposium

Misogyny has moved from the silver screen, magazines, and internet into video gaming. The purpose of this essay is to demonstrate instances of gaming's misogynistic culture that began in the 1980's and has spiraled into the billion dollar juggernaut to this day. Countless examples of misogyny are expressed in gaming culture of the "hardcore" gaming market. Unfortunately, the gamers take their anti woman stances beyond the video games as well. When confronted about their misogynistic tendencies they attack with hateful words and pictures, and have even created a violent video game whose object is to assault a feminist blogger. Feminist …

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Using An Engineered Trojan Horse To Kill Nematodes, Olena Bracho, Cyril Manchery Apr 2014

Using An Engineered Trojan Horse To Kill Nematodes, Olena Bracho, Cyril Manchery

Undergraduate Student Symposium

Infections due to parasitic nematodes result in nearly 125000 deaths annually. Strikingly, this rate remains nearly unchanged in the past 50 years likely owing to the fact that treatment options are either inefficient or inaccessible. Prior to infecting humans, most parasitic nematodes begin as larvae where they feed nearly exclusively on bacteria. This unique property may offer an opportunity to develop new biological control agents with the use of synthetic biology. In this study, we aim to develop gene circuit components that may be used to engineer Escherichia coli to act as a biological control agent of the model nematode …

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Using Gis To Create A Dental Clinic In Miami Dade And Broward County, Rafael L. Martinez Apr 2014

Using Gis To Create A Dental Clinic In Miami Dade And Broward County, Rafael L. Martinez

Undergraduate Student Symposium

A geographic information system (GIS) integrates hardware, software, and data for capturing, managing, analyzing, and displaying all forms of geographically referenced information. The objective of this project was to create a map using GIS with enough data to help dentists to select the perfect place to create a Dental Clinic in Miami Dade and Broward County. For this map was taking into account the population of the counties in Florida, the population younger than 18 years old, and the population older than 65 years old. All of them were vector data layers downloaded through ArcGIS from ArcGIS online. To complete …

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True Love's Sacrifice, Elizabeth Burbano Apr 2014

True Love's Sacrifice, Elizabeth Burbano

Undergraduate Student Symposium

“True Love’s Sacrifice” is a short film about a daughter telling her parents’ romance story. Sadly, the daughter does not know her father because he died protecting her mother and, unknowingly, the daughter as well, while she was still a fetus. The daughter narrates the story of how her parents met, with an emphasis on the important moments in her parents’ relationship (for example, the first time they met, their first date, their first anniversary, her father’s proposal to her mother, and the day the father died). The film is directed by Elizabeth Burbano.

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A High School Football Dream, Hannah Aldoroty Apr 2014

A High School Football Dream, Hannah Aldoroty

Undergraduate Student Symposium

“A High School Football Dream” is a short film about a young man who was an awesome football player in high school. He was scouted by a few top-ranked colleges around the country, but decided to wait to hear back from the school he really wanted to play for. Unfortunately, that school never contacted him; by the time he realized what had happened, the other top-ranked schools had given up on him and recruited other players. Now he plays for a school that is not highly ranked in college football. In the film, he discusses how it feels to miss …

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Analyzing The Short-Term And Long-Term Learning Outcomes On State And National Assessments Of Traditional Public High Schools And Charter High Schools In The State Of Florida, Marissa Hoffman Apr 2014

Analyzing The Short-Term And Long-Term Learning Outcomes On State And National Assessments Of Traditional Public High Schools And Charter High Schools In The State Of Florida, Marissa Hoffman

Undergraduate Student Symposium

The purpose of this research was to determine the short-term and long-term learning outcomes of students who attended traditional public high schools versus charter public high schools. Only traditional and charter high schools in the state of Florida were used in this project. For each charter high school selected, a cluster of four traditional high schools closest to that charter high school was created as a comparison group. The mean FCAT and SAT scores of the charter and traditional schools were selected for the years 2008, 2009, and 2010. A t-test: paired two sample for means was used to evaluate …

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Body Position And Attention, Jana Mrkaja, Marianela Pena-Martinez Apr 2014

Body Position And Attention, Jana Mrkaja, Marianela Pena-Martinez

Undergraduate Student Symposium

The present study explores the effects of power posing on cognitive performance. Prior studies have shown that power poses, which involve expansiveness and openness of the limbs, prepare the individual to react faster and more accurately to stimuli. However, weak poses that involve contractive postures and closed limbs prime individuals to be more inhibited and vigilant, so they perform slower at tasks that require short reaction times, but more accurately on tasks that demand response inhibition. Our study evaluates the effects of strong and weak power poses within individuals. Participants were randomly assigned a strong pose and a weak pose …

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Devaluing The Drachma, Tiffany Smith, Cory Levine Apr 2014

Devaluing The Drachma, Tiffany Smith, Cory Levine

Undergraduate Student Symposium

This research focuses on the downfall of the Greek economy and the economic crisis it produced years after joining the European Union. By abandoning the drachma and adopting the euro, Greece lost the ability to devalue its currency during times of large national debt. If Greece had chosen to remain with the drachma, it may have increased its likelihood of escaping a national economic crisis, which has caused the unemployment rate to escalate and fueled public unrest. This paper will also address the cause of Greece’s debt, the assistance it received from Goldman Sachs and similar banks, as well as …

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Faunal Associations With Native And Nonnative Landscapes, Shannon Aldridge, Tylia Hernandez Apr 2014

Faunal Associations With Native And Nonnative Landscapes, Shannon Aldridge, Tylia Hernandez

Undergraduate Student Symposium

The relatively new native landscape on the East side of Nova Southeastern University’s Parker building provided an opportunity to compare its associated faunal communities with those from an exotic landscape on the West side of the Parker building. Weekly visual surveys using a belt transect were conducted on both sides of the building on the same days over the study period. Four surveys have been completed thus far and 99 individuals were recorded in the native landscape while 87 were recorded in the exotic landscape; of those in the exotic landscape 35.6% were exotic animal species. The most abundant species …

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Hawaiian Monk Seals - Record Of Environmental Influence In An Endangered Species, Joseph Deek, Jaime Gonzalez, Mikaela Edwards, Courtney Cenkner Apr 2014

Hawaiian Monk Seals - Record Of Environmental Influence In An Endangered Species, Joseph Deek, Jaime Gonzalez, Mikaela Edwards, Courtney Cenkner

Undergraduate Student Symposium

The Hawaiian monk seal (Monachus schaundslandi), along with their genetic cousin the Mediterranean monk seal, is one of the most endangered species on the planet, largely due to a combination of environmental and anthropogenic influences. The analysis of both organic and inorganic components of the animals' tooth and bone complexes, in coordination with age assessment, will allow us to ascertain critical information regarding changes to their habitats and the effects of such changes on the animals. Tooth and bone samples from 225 naturally deceased Hawaiian monk seals, enocompassing the past four decades, have been collected from the Northwest …

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Histological Analysis Investigating The Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill's Impact On Gut Tissue Of Crassostrea Virginica, Ji Hae Hwang, Timothy Chung Apr 2014

Histological Analysis Investigating The Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill's Impact On Gut Tissue Of Crassostrea Virginica, Ji Hae Hwang, Timothy Chung

Undergraduate Student Symposium

The Deepwater Horizon drilling rig explosion in 2010 led to the leakage of approximately 4.9 million barrels of oil from the Macondo well. The well was located about a mile under the water surface and its discharge covered a vast area of the northern Gulf of Mexico. Studies have shown that the presence of the oil, or the dispersants used after the incident, may have toxic effects on marine life. The eastern oyster, Crassostrea virginica, is an ideal species to analyze because it is a filter feeder; utilizing the gills for filtration and directing the food to the rest …

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Literature And Medicine Courses: Examining Descriptions, Making Connections, Kamila Albert Apr 2014

Literature And Medicine Courses: Examining Descriptions, Making Connections, Kamila Albert

Undergraduate Student Symposium

The interdisciplinary field of “Literature and Medicine” aims to reintroduce the reflective study of literature into the scientific, data-driven world of healthcare. This broad subject allows for a range of teaching methodologies, often constructed in accordance with an instructor’s research or literary interests, which serve to make classes distinct. Notably, however, the language of “Literature and Medicine” course descriptions, which represent the most concise summaries of courses, often feature similar terms, concepts, and, at times, authors. This is not surprising when one considers that these carefully constructed descriptions must effectively bridge two very different subjects. Therefore, this research project evaluates …

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Manager View - An Interface For Generating Actionable Data From Repository Metrics, Stephan Vanwoezik Apr 2014

Manager View - An Interface For Generating Actionable Data From Repository Metrics, Stephan Vanwoezik

Undergraduate Student Symposium

This computer science project creates an online tool for software development managers. The tool makes quick analysis of a software development company’s project repository. Manager View does something that no existing software does, by allowing the user to view repository metrics in a new and meaningful way. This analysis of repository data can offer insight into the quality and quantity of developers, their actions and the software artifacts they generate. In this project we demonstrate how such data can be used to reveal actionable information. The views show daily employee and task activity in a way that gives a sense …

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Neural Stem Cells Proliferate In Vascular Niches In The Adult Mayan Cichlid Brain, Zara Khan, Jonathan P. Romanes, Sameed Ashfaq Apr 2014

Neural Stem Cells Proliferate In Vascular Niches In The Adult Mayan Cichlid Brain, Zara Khan, Jonathan P. Romanes, Sameed Ashfaq

Undergraduate Student Symposium

The birth of new neurons (neurogenesis) has been observed in all adult mammalian brains examined to date. Adult neural stem cells are located close to blood vessels in each of the two neurogenic regions observed in all mammals. A regulatory role for blood vessels has recently been suggested as a mechanism to regulate neurogenesis. Postnatal neurogenesis has been reported in several regions of the fish brain including the olfactory bulb, dorsal zones of the telencephalon, hypothalamus, and divisions of the cerebellum; however, little else is known about neurogenesis in the adult fish brain. Using thymidine analog incorporation assays, cell death …

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Sensation Seeking Behavior And Aggression: Predictors Of Low Physiological Arousal Under Stress, Jose Serrano, Mustari Akhi Apr 2014

Sensation Seeking Behavior And Aggression: Predictors Of Low Physiological Arousal Under Stress, Jose Serrano, Mustari Akhi

Undergraduate Student Symposium

Using the Bimodal theory of violence, aggression can be dissected into two distinct modes: affective violence and callous-unemotional violence (i.e. predatory violence) where the aggressor is physiologically “under-aroused” (Tulogdi, et al., 2012). These individuals also demonstrate sensation seeking behaviors as a way of increasing arousal. Combined, this suggests that sensation seeking behavior can serve marker of aggression and physiological under-arousal (Wilson and Scarpa, 2011). In order to test this idea, we examined the extent to which sensation seeking behavior was associated with physiological and self-report responses to acute stress (the cold pressor test, CPT). We found that sensation seeking behavior …

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The Medical Care Costs Of Obesity, Natasha Madhyani, Michelle Mguyen Apr 2014

The Medical Care Costs Of Obesity, Natasha Madhyani, Michelle Mguyen

Undergraduate Student Symposium

The rate of obesity in the United States has been increasing drastically over recent decades. Obesity is defined through the body mass index of an individual, which is equal or greater to 30.0; more than twothirds of the population in the US is currently obese. There is an economic impact on the growing rate of obesity, with one of the main focuses in health care costs. There is a high chance of getting diseases that are linked with obesity (ex: hypertension, type 2 diabetes mellitus, and stroke). The annual medical spending for an obese individual can be six times as …

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Total Fms Scores Do Not Predicty Injury But Asymmetries And Low Individual Scores Do, Anya Ellerbroek, Stephanie Hauck Apr 2014

Total Fms Scores Do Not Predicty Injury But Asymmetries And Low Individual Scores Do, Anya Ellerbroek, Stephanie Hauck

Undergraduate Student Symposium

Functional Movement Screen (FMS) scores of <14 have been used to predict injury in athletic populations. Clinicians prioritize individual test scores of “1” and asymmetries when designing corrective exercise programs. Therefore, the presence of either of these may have more utility in predicting injury. The purpose of this study was to determine if the presence of a score of “1” or a left to right asymmetry in individual FMS tests would predict injury in collegiate athletes. 94 male and female collegiate athletes with no recent history of musculoskeletal injury performed the FMS during preseason. Injury incidence data were tracked for an academic year by each team’s certified athletic trainer via computer software. Injury was defined as physical damage to the body secondary to physical training and where the athlete sought medical care. Total FMS scores were categorized as low (<14) or high (>14). Pearson Chi-square analyses were used to determine if (a) total FMS scores could predict injury, and (b) the presence of “1” or an asymmetry could predict injury. Athletes with FMS scores of >14 were not any more likely to sustain an injury. However, athletes with individual scores of “1” or an asymmetry were 6.8x more likely to sustain an injury. Total FMS scores could not be used to predict injury in this group. However, the presence of a score of “1” or an asymmetry in the individual tests did predict injury. Individual test …

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You're Not As Dumb As You Think You Are: The Impact Of A Metacognitive Reframing Intervention, Matthew Welhaf, Deborah Radmanesh Apr 2014

You're Not As Dumb As You Think You Are: The Impact Of A Metacognitive Reframing Intervention, Matthew Welhaf, Deborah Radmanesh

Undergraduate Student Symposium

Working memory is the cognitive function responsible for maintaining and manipulating information. Working memory is related to other higher order cognitive abilities including, reading comprehension (Daneman and Merikle, 1996), reasoning (Kyllonen and Christal, 1990) and fluid intelligence (Conway, Kane, and Engle, 2003). Interventions designed to increase working memory are of great interest given the possible benefits in reading comprehension and academic performance. Metacognition refers to knowledge regarding one’s own cognition and ability to monitor cognitive functioning (Flavell, 1979). Interventions designed to reframe metacognitive interpretations of subjective task difficulty have been shown to improve cognitive performance (Autin and Croizet, 2012). One …

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An Incompatible Romance, Grace Ducanis Apr 2014

An Incompatible Romance, Grace Ducanis

Undergraduate Student Symposium

This presentation examines the heroine and hero of Jane Austen’s novel Northanger Abbey, exposing their inequality in temperament, intelligence, and discernment, while questioning the true motivations for their attachment. Catherine Morland and Henry Tilney are not separated by wealth, class, or other social expectations, but by their critically dissimilar personalities. Although Catherine is inferior to Tilney in every sense, the novel promotes the couple’s romance and marriage. Tilney’s affection does not stem from his acceptance of Catherine as an equal, but from his perception of her affection for him. This paper explores the polarity of the two characters in light …

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Attractiveness Perception: Contemporary And Classic, Scott Earley, Shannon Ali-Samhoul Apr 2014

Attractiveness Perception: Contemporary And Classic, Scott Earley, Shannon Ali-Samhoul

Undergraduate Student Symposium

People have noticed that less attractive mates seem more attractive near the end of the night. Most blame alcohol consumption, but studies have shown (Johnco,C; Wheeler,L, 2010), (Sprecher, S; DeLamater, J; Neuman, N, 1984) that it is actually the reduction of the dating pool that creates the illusion of attractiveness. The focus of this study is to examine the perception of attractiveness people have when there is a reduced population of viable mates. One interpretation suggests that the perceived increase of attractiveness acts as a means to lower the standards of the yet unaware perceiver. There are certain set points …

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Development Of A Model Medical Device Using Highly Active Derivatized Proteinase Enzyme, Nicholas Ledra Apr 2014

Development Of A Model Medical Device Using Highly Active Derivatized Proteinase Enzyme, Nicholas Ledra

Undergraduate Student Symposium

This project is a continuation from a previous investigation from 2012. The objective is an at home, Point of Care testing device to monitor average glucose status of diabetic patients which has been proven more reliable. The technology involves a complex assembly of enzymes, hemolyzing agents, and electrodes, such that one drop of whole blood can be rapidly assayed for Hemoglobin A1c – a long term indicator of average day to day blood glucose levels.

Specific to the aspect of this work, two alternative proteinase enzymes, were compared. Our results clearly demonstrated that Proteinase K (Roche) is superior in its …

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Differentiation Of Solutions Of 2Nd Order Boundary Value Problems With Integral Boundary Conditions, Alfredo Janson, Bibi Juman Apr 2014

Differentiation Of Solutions Of 2Nd Order Boundary Value Problems With Integral Boundary Conditions, Alfredo Janson, Bibi Juman

Undergraduate Student Symposium

In this talk, we make certain continuity and disconjugacy assumptions on second order boundary value problems with nonlocal integral boundary conditions. Given a solution of the boundary value problem, we differentiate the solution with respect to various boundary parameters. We show the resulting function solves the associated variational equation.

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Evaluating Common Ion Concentrations In Bottled Drinking Water And Local Marine Water, Karem Molinares, Roshni Patel Apr 2014

Evaluating Common Ion Concentrations In Bottled Drinking Water And Local Marine Water, Karem Molinares, Roshni Patel

Undergraduate Student Symposium

Various ion concentrations in bottled drinking water, campus drinking water, and local marine water have been measured by chromatography and other techniques to evaluate their environmental and health impacts. Different bottled drinking water has been tested for ion (including chloride and sulfate) concentrations. The results are compared to the values reported by the distributing companies as well as the EPA national standards. Non-concurrence was rare but existed in certain samples. The samples are also tested for chemical and biological signatures after exposure to sunlight over various lengths of time. In the field, a series of marine water samples collected in …

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Predicting Porphyrin Basicity Using Semi-Empirical Methods, Haley Mckissack Apr 2014

Predicting Porphyrin Basicity Using Semi-Empirical Methods, Haley Mckissack

Undergraduate Student Symposium

Porphyrins are macrocycles found in many natural compounds. The changes in energy between the protonated (dication) and free base porphyrins were determined using molecular modeling. The data obtained was then compared to experimental enthalpy values. The porphyrins analyzed were octaethylporphyrin, octaethyltetraphenylporphyrin, tetraphenylporphyrin, and tetra-[2]-pentylporphyrin. Molecular mechanics was employed to optimize each porphyrin, and semi-empirical calculation methods RM1 and PM3 were subsequently utilized to test the conformational energies of the protonated and deprotonated porphyrins. The semi-empirical PM3 method was best for analysis of energy changes among the porphyrins; although the obtained values did not exactly match experimental values, the trends of …

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