A Willamette Valley farm cooperative was interested
in evaluating locations for their canning facilities based on
the criterion of minimizing aggregate distance to their contract
farms. This location problem presented an excellent opportunity
for a geographic application project as it was characterized by
one, a spatial distribution of farms and...
This dissertation details the investigation of an alternate pathway to
isoprenoids that occurs in plants and microorganisms, the non-mevalonate
pathway. This exploration of the pathway focuses on the second step, the
conversion of 1-deoxy-D-xylulose-5-phosphate (DXP) to 2-C-methylerythritol-4-phosphate (MEP) by the enzyme DXP isomeroreductase (DXR). These studies led to an appreciation...
This dissertation describes studies of isoprenoid biosynthesis in the
phytoflagellate Euglena gracilis. Elucidation of a novel isoprerioid pathway, the 2-Cmethyl-D-erythritol-4-phosphate (MEP) pathway, in addition to the generally known
mevalonate (MVA) pathway, led to extensive exploration of the distribution of both pathways in a variety of organisms. To date, photosynthetic eukaryotes...
The discovery of the methylerythritol phosphate pathway (the MEP pathway) as an alternate pathway for isoprenoid biosynthesis in some organisms including most bacteria, malarial parasites and plants, but not in animals, has stimulated extensive studies in this area. Research has revealed the potential of finding novel antibacterials, antimalarial drugs, and...
In recent years, the methyl erythritol phosphate (MEP) pathway to isoprenoids has been the subject of intensive research. The interest is because isoprenoids have important roles in many cellular processes essential for the survival of several pathogenic organisms, making the inhibition of this pathway an attractive target for the drug...
The isoprenoid pathway is one of the major biosynthetic pathways of secondary metabolites. Isoprenoids with a C₂₀ skeleton are known as diterpenoids and are derived from the common precursor, geranylgeranyl diphosphate (GGPP). This dissertation describes approaches to discover the diterpene synthase enzymes which provide the backbone structures for pleuromutilin and...
As a result of its atomic structure, carbon fiber produced from mesophase pitch
has a high electrical conductivity and high tensile strength. Others have used carbon fiber
as a resistive heating unit to accelerate matrix solidification in carbon fiber-polymer
matrix composites.
In this study, a unidirectional carbon fiber reinforced polymer...