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Full-Text Articles in Chemistry

Analysis Of Mass Fragmentation Patterns Using Dart-Ms And Gcms For Drugs Of Abuse, Teresa Anne O'Neill Jan 2014

Analysis Of Mass Fragmentation Patterns Using Dart-Ms And Gcms For Drugs Of Abuse, Teresa Anne O'Neill

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

Drugs of abuse have been a major problem for law enforcement departments. The structures of the drugs, as well as the ever changing trends in abuse, make it difficult and time consuming to analyze using modern techniques such as GC-MS. DART-MS is a rapid technique that requires no pre-treatment or re-concentration to analyze a sample. Samples of amphetamines, cathinones and cannabinoids were analyzed using DART-MS and GC-MS in order to provide fragment patterns that would make it easier to identify an unknown drug. Using DART-MS, isomers can be differentiated as well as identified rapidly, which is an advantage over GC-MS. …


Monitoring Ligand-Induced Nucleic Acid Conformational Changes Using Ion Mobility Spectrometry-Mass Spectrometry, Bill Kenneth Redick Jan 2014

Monitoring Ligand-Induced Nucleic Acid Conformational Changes Using Ion Mobility Spectrometry-Mass Spectrometry, Bill Kenneth Redick

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

Three-dimensional structures of biopolymers frequently dictate the biological role those molecules play. As such, investigation into structure of nucleic acids can provide important information pertaining to how those nucleic acids work. Many nucleic acid species, especially single-stranded RNA, fold into unique structures that allow them to function properly. Metals, and other cationic species, are often bound to the nucleic acid to make folding into the proper structure more favorable by neutralizing the negative charge on the nucleic acid imparted by the phosphate group. This investigation explores tertiary structure of nucleic acids that have been folded in the presence of ligands …


Raman Spectroscopy Of Blood Serum And Cerebrospinal Fluid And Multivariate Data Analysis For Alzheimer's Disease Diagnostics, Elena Ryzhikova Jan 2014

Raman Spectroscopy Of Blood Serum And Cerebrospinal Fluid And Multivariate Data Analysis For Alzheimer's Disease Diagnostics, Elena Ryzhikova

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

The efficient and accurate diagnosis at the early stages of dementia is a key moment for effective treatment and productive research to find a new ways to combat the disease. It is especially true for Alzheimer's disease (AD) for which there is no effective cure, but several treatments are known to allow slowing down the degenerative processes. Alzheimer's disease (AD) displays only non-specific clinical symptoms of mental decline for decades after the initiation and is very challenging to differentiate even at the later stages when it becomes very aggressive. Despite the great need, current diagnostic tests are unable to diagnose …


Modeling The Early, Aging-Related Changes In Human Recombinant Gammas-Crystallin In Vitro, Christiana Oluwaseun Salami Jan 2014

Modeling The Early, Aging-Related Changes In Human Recombinant Gammas-Crystallin In Vitro, Christiana Oluwaseun Salami

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

Cataract is the leading cause of blindness in the world. Cataractous lenses scatter a significant part of the light entering the eye. Cataract can be of several types: Age-related cataract, secondary cataract, traumatic cataract, congenital cataract, and radiation cataract. Age-related cataract is the most common type of cataract. Several factors contribute to age-onset cataract; among them are the Post-Translational Modifications (PTMs) to the major lens proteins or crystallins, which constitute about 80-90% of the protein content of the lens. Predominant PTMs of the crystallins are oxidation, deamidation, phosphorylation, glycation, and disulfide crosslinking, which tend to increase as the lens ages.


Spatial And Seasonal Variability Of Cloud Condensation Nuclei Number Concentrations Over The Extended North African Continent And The Mediterranean, Hesham Abdel-Monem Afify Hassan Jan 2014

Spatial And Seasonal Variability Of Cloud Condensation Nuclei Number Concentrations Over The Extended North African Continent And The Mediterranean, Hesham Abdel-Monem Afify Hassan

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

The spatiotemporal variability of cloud condensation nuclei (CCN) number concentration is investigated over the extended domain of the North African continent and Mediterranean which is an essential step for better understanding of aerosol-cloud interactions and associated climate impacts over the region. The study is performed by analyzing the output for the period from 2004 to 2011 from the well-validated global chemistry and aerosol transport model GEOS-Chem-APM. The analysis shows that the dominant aerosol type for CCN number concentration is secondary particles all over the domain. Spatial analysis reveals the existence of four characteristic subdomains of variability: over the Mediterranean and …


Improving The Microbial Source Tracking Toolbox : Evaluating The Use Of Selective Enrichments And Artificial Sweeteners In A Multi-Tiered Approach, Stacey A. Helming Jan 2014

Improving The Microbial Source Tracking Toolbox : Evaluating The Use Of Selective Enrichments And Artificial Sweeteners In A Multi-Tiered Approach, Stacey A. Helming

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

Microbial contamination of surface waters is a public health concern world-wide, with non-point source fecal input contributing to millions of cases of waterborne illness annually. Numerous techniques have been proposed to monitor for non-point source fecal contamination, but few studies have explored the correlation of multiple chemical and microbial fecal source tracking markers in ambient waters. Therefore, the purpose of these studies was to evaluate the use of multiple "ideal" markers of fecal contamination and improve upon any analytical techniques required to identify species-specific fecal contamination in surface waters. The use of selective enrichments to improve the sensitivity of end-point …


First-Principles Study Of The Electric Field Effect On The Water-Adsorbed Rutile Titanium Dioxide Surface, Abraham L. Hmiel Jan 2014

First-Principles Study Of The Electric Field Effect On The Water-Adsorbed Rutile Titanium Dioxide Surface, Abraham L. Hmiel

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

TiO2 is a semiconducting material that has been used extensively in many industrial applications, and recently has become a candidate for photocatalytic water splitting, fuel cell anode support materials, sensors, and other novel nanodevices. The interface of TiO2 with water, historically well-studied but still poorly understood, presents a ubiquitous environmental challenge towards the ultimate practical usefulness of these technologies. Ground-state density functional theory (DFT) calculations studying the characteristics of molecular adsorption on model surfaces have been studied for decades, showing constant improvement in the description of the energetics and electronic structure at interfaces. These simulations are invaluable in the …


Uncovering Organosulfur Natural Products In The "Shy-Plant" Mimosa Pudica Via Direct Analysis In Real Time Mass Spectrometry : Volatiles Emission From Touch Sensitive Roots, Max Jacob Maron Jan 2014

Uncovering Organosulfur Natural Products In The "Shy-Plant" Mimosa Pudica Via Direct Analysis In Real Time Mass Spectrometry : Volatiles Emission From Touch Sensitive Roots, Max Jacob Maron

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

Mimosa pudica L. (Mimosaceae) is a small shrub endemic to South America, now pantropically distributed. M. pudica displays the properties of seismonasty where the leaves fold and stems droop in response to both touch, as well as nyctinasty, a type of circadian rhythm. It was previously reported that the principal component of the odor that is produced when M. pudica is uprooted is caused by CS2 and COS, both of which were detected by GC-MS. The present study has found that the roots emit a foul odor in response to direct root stimulation. Further, neither CS2 nor COS were observed …