Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Myrothecium Verrucaria : A Potential Biological Control Agent For The Invasive 'Old World Climbing Fern' Lygodium Microphyllum, Tainya Cathia Clarke

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Non native plants are a threat to ecosystems across the globe, some delicate ecosystems like those in South Florida are in greater danger because of the large number of endemics at risk. Old World Climbing Fern (Lygodium microphyllum) has become one of the most invasive and destructive weeds in southern Florida. To date different efforts have been made to control its growth and spread but have not been successful. In light of the highly delicate ecosystem affected by L. microphyllum, a biological paradigm may be a more ecologically sound approach to the containment of this obnoxious weed. …

Synthesis Of Multisubstituted Halo-Olefins Via Pd-Catalyzed Cross-Coupling Reactions : Applications In Nucleoside Chemistry, Daniela Andrei

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The enzyme S-adenosyl-L-homocysteine (AdoHey) hydrolase effects hydrolytic cleavage of AdoHcy to adenosine (Ado) and L-homocysteine (Hcy). The cellular levels of AdoHcy and Hcy are critical because AdoHcy is a potent feedback inhibitor of crucial transmethylation enzymes. Also, elevated plasma levels of Hcy in humans have been shown to be a risk factor in coronary artery disease.

On the basis of the previous finding that AdoHcy hydrolase is able to add the enzyme-sequestered water molecule across the 5',6'-double bond of (halo or dihalohomovinyl)-adenosines causing covalent binding inhibition, we designed and synthesized AdoHcy analogues with the 5',6'-olefin motif incorporated in place of …

Phylogenetic Analysis Of Within-Host Serially-Sampled Viral Data, Patricia Buendia

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The primary goal of this dissertation is the study of patterns of viral evolution inferred from serially-sampled sequence data, i.e., sequence data obtained from strains isolated at consecutive time points from a single patient or host. RNA viral populations have an extremely high genetic variability, largely due to their astronomical population sizes within host systems, high replication rate, and short generation time. It is this aspect of their evolution that demands special attention and a different approach when studying the evolutionary relationships of serially-sampled sequence data. New methods that analyze serially-sampled data were developed shortly after a groundbreaking HIV-1 study …

Syntheses Of Aza Analogs Of Kainoids, Mingping Di

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The kainoids are a class of non-proteinogenic pyrrolidine dicarboxylates that exhibit both excitatory and excitotoxic activities. These activities are a result of the ability of the kainoids to act as glutamate receptor agonists by activating ionotropic glutamate receptors. The parent of this group of compounds is x-kainic acid. Kainic acid is isolated from the seaweed Diginea simplex and has been used in Asian countries as a treatment for intestinal worms in children. In addition it is used extensively by neuropharmacologists for the study of glutamate receptors. Several years ago, the world's sole supplier of kainic acid discontinued this product. Since …

A Framework For Transforming, Analyzing, And Realizing Software Designs In Unified Modeling Language, Zhijiang Dong

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Unified Modeling Language (UML) is the most comprehensive and widely accepted object-oriented modeling language due to its multi-paradigm modeling capabilities and easy to use graphical notations, with strong international organizational support and industrial production quality tool support. However, there is a lack of precise definition of the semantics of individual UML notations as well as the relationships among multiple UML models, which often introduces incomplete and inconsistent problems for software designs in UML, especially for complex systems. Furthermore, there is a lack of methodologies to ensure a correct implementation from a given UML design. The purpose of this investigation is …

Natural Organic Matter And Colloid-Facilitated Arsenic Transport And Transformation In Porous Soil Media, Zhangrong Chen

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Prediction of arsenic transport and transformation in soil environment requires understanding the transport mechanisms and proper estimation of arsenic partitioning among all three phases in soil/aquifer systems: mobile colloids, mobile soil solution, and immobile soil solids. The primary purpose of this research is to study natural dissolved organic matter (DOM)/colloid-facilitated transport of arsenic and understand the role of soil derived carriers in the transport and transformation of both inorganic and organoarsenicals in soils.

DOM/colloid facilitated arsenic transport and transformation in porous soil media were investigated using a set of experimental approaches including batch experiment, equilibrium membrane dialysis experiment and column …

Reactions Of 1,1-Disubstituted-Ethylenes And 1,4-Diphenyl-1,3-Butadienes With Singlet Oxygen And 4-Alkyl-1,2,4-Triazoline-3,5-Dione (Rtad), Baishakhi Das

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

A study of the reaction pathways of 1,1-diphenylethylene; methyleneindan; fluorenene; trans,trans-1,4-diphenyl-1,3-butadiene; cis,trans-1,4-diphenyl-1,3- butadiene and cis,cis-1,4-diphenyl-1,3-butadiene with singlet oxygen and the singlet oxygen mimic, 4-alkyl-1,2,4-triazoline-3,5-dione (RTAD) has been undertaken. Comparisons of the reactivity and reaction mechanisms among the isomers and electrophiles have been conducted. Singlet oxygen exhibits significantly lower reactivity compared to RTAD. RTAD reacts with 1,1- diphenylethylene to produce 4+2/ene and 4+2/4+2 (2:1) adducts but with methyleneindan to give a complex mixture including the ene adduct. Reactions of isomeric 1,4-diphenyl-1,3-butadienes with RTAD produce 4+2 adducts. The results of the studies provide …

Exotic Meson Decay Widths Using Lattice Quantum Chromodynamics, Merritt S. Cook

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Most experiments in particle physics are scattering experiments, the analysis of which leads to masses, scattering phases, decay widths and other properties of one or multi-particle systems. Until the advent of Lattice Quantum Chromodynamics (LQCD) it was difficult to compare experimental results on low energy hadron- hadron scattering processes to the predictions of QCD, the current theory of strong interactions. The reason being, at low energies the QCD coupling constant becomes large and the perturbation expansion for scattering amplitudes does not converge. To overcome this, one puts the theory onto a lattice, imposes a momentum cutoff, and computes the integral …

Social Sustainability Of Hybrid Electricity Generation Systems In Mexico, Pablo Federico Blackmore

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis tried to determine the socioeconomic contributions of a renewable-hybrid energy system in San Juanico, Mexico. It also tried to analyze if the hybrid system was designed based on sustainable development principles. A survey of 91 electrified homes was conducted in San Juanico to gather information on consumer satisfaction and data analyzed using simple means and group mean comparisons, with suitable tests as needed. A binomial probit model for two dependent variables was applied to survey data. An energy price-comparison exercise was conducted as well. Findings showed the hybrid system had suffered from weak institutional frameworks, low community participation …

Origin Of The Grande Ronde Formation Flows, Columbia River Flood Basalt Group, Sedelia Rodriguez Durand

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Lavas belonging to the Grande Ronde Formation (GRB) constitute about 63% of the Columbia River Basalt Group (CRBG), a flood basalt province in the NW United States. A puzzling feature is the lack of phenocrysts (< 5%) in these chemically evolved lavas. Based mainly on this observation it has been hypothesized that GRB lavas were nearly primary melts generated by large-scale melting of eclogite. Another recent hypothesis holds that GRB magmas were extremely hydrous and rose rapidly from the mantle such that the dissolved water kept the magmas close to their liquidi. I present new textural and chemical evidence to show that GRB lavas were neither primary nor hydrous melts but were derived from other melts via efficient fractional crystallization and mixing in shallow intrusive systems. Texture and chemical features further suggest that the melt mixing process may have been exothermic, which forced variable melting of some of the existing phenocrysts.

Finally, reported here are the results of efforts to simulate the higher pressure histories of GRB using COMAGMAT and MELTS softwares. The intent was to evaluate (1) whether such melts could be derived from primary melts formed by partial melting of a peridotite source as an alternative to the eclogite model, or if bulk melting of eclogite is required; and (2) at what pressure …