Chemistry Commons^™

College Of Natural Sciences Newsletter, December 2021, College Of Natural Sciences

College of Natural Sciences Newsletters and Reports

Volume 2, Issue 12

Page 1 Dean's Message
Page 2 Awards & Recognition
Page 2 Media Coverage of CNS
Page 3 Media Coverage Cont.
Page 4 Science as Art Competition
Page 5 Open PRAIRIE Data
Page 5 Grants Awarded in CNS

Evaluation Of The Trunarc Handheld Narcotics Analyzer As A Pre-Analysis Screening Device For The Orange County Crime Lab, Sarah Yang, D. Bauer, C. Woltz, S. Soto, Michael Ibba

Student Scholar Symposium Abstracts and Posters

Forensic analysis of suspected narcotics is often dangerous as the substances’ composition is unknown. Many techniques for drug identification require handling of the substance outside of its packaging, which can expose the analyst to potentially harmful chemicals. The TruNarc Handheld Narcotics Analyzer is a portable Raman spectroscopy device that is non-destructive of evidence and can be used to screen drugs through simple packaging to minimize the risk of exposure. The Orange County Crime Lab (OCCL) is testing the limits of this device to determine if it can be used to screen new evidence within the Seized Drugs Lab. The OCCL …

College Of Natural Sciences Newsletter, November 2021, College Of Natural Sciences

College of Natural Sciences Newsletters and Reports

Volume 2, Issue 11

Page 1 Dean's Message
Page 2 Awards & Recognition
Page 3 Media Coverage of CNS
Page 4 2021 Day of Scholars
Page 5 Astronomy Outreach
Page 6 SDSU Faculty & Students Host American Society for Microbiology Annual Conference
Page 7 Scholarship Brunch
Page 8 Open PRAIRIE Data, SI Final Exam Review Sessions
Page 9 Aamlid Family Anatomy Lab Photos

College Of Natural Sciences Scholarship Brunch Program, November 6th 2021, College Of Natural Sciences

College of Natural Sciences Newsletters and Reports

This is the program for the first annual College of Natural Sciences Scholarship Brunch, held on November 6th, 2021 at McCrory Gardens.

College Of Natural Sciences Newsletter, October 2021, College Of Natural Sciences

College of Natural Sciences Newsletters and Reports

Volume 2, Issue 10

Page 1 Dean's Message
Page 2 Awards and Recognition; Introducing Natural Sciences Student Ambassadors
Page 3 Media Coverage of CNS
Page 4 Spooky Science Outreach
Page 5 The BIG Event Outreach
Page 6 Geography Club Road Trip
Page 7 Aamlid Family Anatomy Lab
Page 8 Hobo Day Recap
Page 10 Open PRAIRIE Data; Grants Awarded in CNS

Novel Pilot Development Of A Closed-Loop Sustainable System Between Biogas Renewable Energy, Distilling, And Aquaculture By Vermiculture Of Stillage Wastes, Samuel C. Kessler

The Cardinal Edge

This study provides a mixed-methods approach in analyzing a potential closed-loop system between renewable biogas production from anaerobic digestion, vermiculture production, aquaculture production, and organic wastes with a particular focus on stillage wastes. Such system may hold significant promise for significantly reducing organic carbon and methane emissions from its components, and should be assessed for such. The 2021 IPCC report essentially identified methane reduction as the single fastest way to slow global warming (IPCC, 2021), making the study and implementation of methane-reducing systems and supportive policy for them critical. Knowledge gaps to implementing this system were qualitatively identified as disconnect …

College Of Natural Sciences Newsletter, September 2021, College Of Natural Sciences

College of Natural Sciences Newsletters and Reports

Volume 2, Issue 9.

Page 1 Dean's Message
Page 2 Awards and Recognition
Page 3 Student Clubs in Natural Science
Page 4 Media Coverage of CNS
Page 5 Hobo Day Festivities
Page 6 Open PRAIRIE Data; Grants Awarded in CNS
Page 7 One Day for State Recap

Citation Patterns In Chemistry Dissertations At A Mid-Sized University: An Internal Citation Analysis And External Comparison, Lisa M. Rose-Wiles

Library Publications

This study analyzes the references cited in 34 chemistry dissertations and compares the results with an earlier study of citations in American Chemical Society journals. The dissertations cite more references and older references and a greater diversity of sources. They have the same tendency to heavily cite journal articles from a small core of traditional journals. This study underscores the value of comparing internal citation analyses with external citation analyses, and of analyzing the number of citing authors as well as the number of citations. Interlibrary loan and internal usage statistics were also used to inform collection development and library …

Evaluation Of The Potential Of Automated Sem-Eds Analysis For The Discrimination Of Inorganic Soil Particles, Anna S. Duggar

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Soil, that complex mixture of minerals, organic particles, chemicals, and anthropogenic materials, is ubiquitous and easily transferred, which gives it forensic relevance. Forensic soil analysis has traditionally included the identification and comparison of both organic and inorganic components, the inorganic portion being most commonly examined by light microscopy and other instrumental techniques. Predominantly, the inorganic materials in soil are naturally-occurring minerals, contributed as grains from the surrounding bedrock, which gives a soil its regional character. That parent material then undergoes physical, chemical, and anthropogenic changes producing wide geographic variation within a single region. This variation forms the basis for potential …

To Know The Land With Hands And Minds: Negotiating Agricultural Knowledge In Late-Nineteenth-Century New England And Westphalia, Justus Hillebrand

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Ever since the eighteenth century, experts have tried to tell farmers how to farm. The agricultural enlightenment in Europe marked the beginning of a long arc of new experts aiming to change agricultural knowledge and practice. This dissertation analyzes the pivotal period in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century in Germany and the United States when scientists, improvers, and market agents began to develop comprehensive ways to communicate agricultural innovation to farmers. In a functional approach to analyzing the negotiation of agricultural knowledge through its communication in things, words, and practices, this dissertation argues that the process of change …

Faculty-Librarian Cooperation For Virtual Stem Based Courses: Creating Successful Learning Experiences For Undergraduate Students At Ucf, Sandy Avila, Nicole Lapeyrouse

Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

This conference presentation was delivered at the Special Libraries Association annual virtual conference on August 12, 2021.

Session Abstract

In this session, University of Central Florida Chemistry Faculty, Dr. Nicole Lapeyrouse and Science Librarian, Sandy Avila will discuss their transition from in-person instruction to online learning during the pandemic and how their professional collaboration developed instructional resources for student success. Prior to COVID-19, a fruitful cooperative relationship was already in place, but quickly having to pivot to remote teaching and learning allowed for additional opportunities for unique experiences to be created. Those include use of open-educational e-texts, interactive online software …

College Of Natural Sciences Newsletter, August 2021, College Of Natural Sciences

College of Natural Sciences Newsletters and Reports

Volume 2, Issue 8.

Page 1 Dean's Message
Page 2 Awards and Recognition
Page 3 Student Summer Research
Page 4 Media Coverage of CNS
Page 5 Wintrode Student Success Center
Page 6-7 Welcome to our new Faculty & Staff!
Page 8 One Day for State: Thursday, Sept. 2nd
Page 7 Open PRAIRIE Data; Fall Faculty Retreat 2021

Degumming Of Hemp Fibers Using Combined Microwave Energy And Deep Eutectic Solvent, Bulbul Ahmed

LSU Master's Theses

Hemp is considered as one of the sustainable agricultural fiber materials. Degumming or surface modification of hemp bast is needed to produce single fibers for ensuing textile and industrial applications. The traditional degumming process necessitates a high amount of alkali, which causes detrimental environmental pollution. This study offers a new method to degum hemp fibers with reduced use of harmful alkali and precious water resources. In this work, hemp bast fibers were degummed by using combined microwave energy and deep eutectic solvent (DES). The properties of hemp fibers manufactured by this method were investigated and compared with the traditional alkali …

College Of Natural Sciences Newsletter, July 2021, College Of Natural Sciences

College of Natural Sciences Newsletters and Reports

Volume 2, Issue 7.

Page 1 Dean's Message
Page 2 Celebrating Three Years
Page 3 Summer School Travel
Page 4 Media Coverage of CNS
Page 5 Chemistry Teachers Visit
Page 5 Remembering Dr. Warren Hein
Page 6 Research Spotlights: Undergraduate Summer Experiences
Page 7 Open PRAIRIE Data; Grants Awarded in CNS

Microfabrication And Electrochemical Characterization Of A Novel Su-8 Probe With An Array Of Individually Addressable Electrodes Suitable For Redox Cycling Experiments In Ultra-Small Volumes, Mahsa Lotfi Marchoubeh

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Redox cycling is an electrochemical technique that utilizes closely spaced generator and collector electrodes to cycle reversible redox species between their oxidative states. With advantages in signal amplification, selectivity of species based on their electrochemical reaction mechanism, and limited or no background subtraction, this technique is well suited for selective detection of important electrochemically active molecules such as dopamine at basal or slowly changing levels.

Miniaturized medical devices have become an area of great interest for measurement of chemicals in limited volumes with low concentrations or in sensitive tissues. A probe on a polymeric SU-8 substrate with suitable dimensions and …

Implications Of The Links Between Demography And Ecology For The Economy Of The Republic Of Karakalpakstan, Keunimjay Allanazarov, Gulya Khodjaeva, Katherine Shields

Karakalpak Scientific Journal

This article analyzes the impact of demographic factor on territorial organization of production in rural areas of the Republic of Karakalpakstan and reveals the main trends in production development. The analysis of statistical data of rural areas is given and proposals to improve the negative situation are given. More than 1306.8 thousand people live in rural areas of the Republic of Karakalpakstan, where they are concentrated in 1187 settlements, 26 urban settlements, and 11 towns of district subordination. All this testifies to the presence of large undeveloped production reserves and huge human potential. However, due to reduction of Amudarya water …

College Of Natural Sciences Newsletter, June 2021, College Of Natural Sciences

College of Natural Sciences Newsletters and Reports

Volume 2, Issue 6.

Page 1 Dean's Message
Page 2-6 Remembering the Life of Dr. Pengra and Celebrating His legacy for Entire Generations to Come.

Effects Of Environmental Change On Ancestral Pueblo Fishing In The Middle Rio Grande, Jonathan W. Dombrosky Dr.

Anthropology ETDs

It has long been assumed that fishes were unimportant in the diet of past Pueblo people in the U.S. Southwest. Yet, small numbers of fish remains are consistently recovered from Late pre-Hispanic/Early Historic archaeological sites in the Middle Rio Grande of New Mexico. The end of drought conditions may have impacted food choice and fishing decisions during this time. I use behavioral ecology to understand how fishing could have been an optimal food-getting strategy for Ancestral Pueblo farmers. Stable isotope analysis offers a way to account for environmental change. I provide a refined ¹³C Suess correction model to support …

College Of Natural Sciences Newsletter, May 2021, College Of Natural Sciences

College of Natural Sciences Newsletters and Reports

Volume 2, Issue 5.

Page 1 Dean's Message
Page 2 - 3 Awards & Recognition
Page 4 Research Spotlight: Dr. Xiaoyang Zhang
Page 5 Upcoming Retirements
Page 6 - 7 Geography Alumni Social, Recent Media Coverage
Page 8 Open PRAIRIE Data
Page 9 - 11 Spring 2021 Dean's List and Academic Recognitions

The Impact Of Service-Learning On General Chemistry Ii Students At The University Of Nebraska At Omaha, Kayla Rud

Theses/Capstones/Creative Projects

Service-learning has been shown to enhance academic and leadership skills while promoting community engagement and exposing students to different career opportunities (Esson et al., 2005). While the benefits of service-learning courses are clear, few STEM courses include service-learning components (Esson et al., 2005). Here, students in a totally online 2nd semester UNO chemistry course completed a service-learning project where they remotely led a live, inquiry-based STEM activity for Girl Scouts. To quantify the impact of service-learning on professional development, future career plans, and future volunteerism, a series of pre and post surveys were administered. Paired-sample t-tests revealed a statistically significant …

College Of Natural Sciences Newsletter, April 2021, College Of Natural Sciences

College of Natural Sciences Newsletters and Reports

Volume 2, Issue 4

Page 1 Dean's Message
Page 2 & 3 Awards & Recognition
Page 4 Student Spotlight: Allsion Bjornstad
Page 5 Research Spotlight: Dr. Vondruska & Students
Page 6 Department Head Interviews
Page 7 Media Coverage of CNS
Page 8 Open PRAIRIE Data
Page 9 Student Club Spotlight: BMGSA
Page 10 Then & Now: Urban Geography

Bibliometric Analysis Of Named Entity Recognition For Chemoinformatics And Biomedical Information Extraction Of Ovarian Cancer, Vijayshri Khedkar, Charlotte Fernandes, Devshi Desai, Mansi R, Gurunath Chavan Dr, Sonali Tidke Dr., M. Karthikeyan Dr.

Library Philosophy and Practice (e-journal)

With the massive amount of data that has been generated in the form of unstructured text documents, Biomedical Named Entity Recognition (BioNER) is becoming increasingly important in the field of biomedical research. Since currently there does not exist any automatic archiving of the obtained results, a lot of this information remains hidden in the textual details and is not easily accessible for further analysis. Hence, text mining methods and natural language processing techniques are used for the extraction of information from such publications.Named entity recognition, is a subtask that comes under information extraction that focuses on finding and categorizing specific …

College Of Natural Sciences Newsletter, March 2021, College Of Natural Sciences

College of Natural Sciences Newsletters and Reports

Volume 2. Issue 3

Contents:

Page 1 Dean's Message
Page 2-3 Awards and Recognition
Page 4 Student Club Spotlight: MICROBIOLOGY CLUB
Page 5 Research Spotlight: Dr. Chakravarty
Page 6 Open PRAIRIE Data; Grants Awarded in CNS; Research Collquia
Page 7 A Busy Month in Review; Media Coverage of the College

Analysis Of Lubricants At Trace Levels Using Infrared Spectroscopy, Tanmai Bandarupalli

Honors Undergraduate Theses

Analysis of trace evidence involved in sexual assault investigations holds considerable potential as a newer avenue of identification when bulk, larger evidence is not found or unreliable. Trace analysis of forensic materials involves common findings such as strands of hair, residues left on clothing, shards of paint or glass, etc. In recent research focused on the analysis of trace materials found as evidence in a sexual assault, there has been promise in condom and bottled lubricant classification based on their chemical profiles that can provide an associative link in an investigation. Few studies have considered the examination of lubricant evidence …

World Oceans: A Reference Handbook, Rob Tench

Libraries Faculty & Staff Publications

Book review of Newton, David, World Oceans: A Reference Handbook, ABC-CLIO. (Contemporary World Issues), Feb. 2021, ISBN 9781440875434.

Absorbent Household Materials For The Collection Of Ignitable Liquid Residues From Surfaces Of Varying Porosity, Jessica Carlotti

Online Theses and Dissertations

Ignitable liquids (ILs) are used as accelerants to burn items at a faster rate and the presence of an IL indicates that arson has occurred. Upon arrival to an arson scene, fire investigators access the scene and collect substrates containing ILs. The substrates, such as concrete and wood, are removed from the scene by methods that are time consuming, and require heavy machinery and tools. The evidence is transported in air-tight containers to the laboratory where analysts identify the chemical classification of the IL using gas chromatography mass spectrometry (GC-MS). In this work, readily available absorbent household materials such as …

Labilization And Diversification Of Pyrogenic Dissolved Organic Matter By Microbes, Aleksandar I. Goranov, Andrew S. Wozniak, Kyle W. Bostick, Andrew R. Zimmerman, Siddhartha Mitra, Patrick G. Hatcher

Chemistry & Biochemistry Faculty Publications

With the increased occurrence of forest fires around the world, interest in the chemistry of pyrogenic organic matter (pyOM) and its fate in the environment has increased. Upon leaching from soils by rain events, significant amounts of dissolved pyOM (pyDOM) enter the aquatic environment and interact with microbial communities that are essential for cycling organic matter within the different biogeochemical cycles. To evaluate the bio-reactivity of pyDOM, aqueous extracts of laboratory-produced chars were incubated with soil microbes and the molecular changes to the composition of pyDOM were probed using ultrahigh resolution mass spectrometry (Fourier transform – ion cyclotron resonance – …

College Of Natural Sciences 2021 Year-End Publication, College Of Natural Sciences

College of Natural Sciences Newsletters and Reports

Page 2 Welcome, Table of Contents
Page 3 Our Departments: Highlights From 2021
Page 4 Overview of the College
Page 5 Overview of Bold & Blue
Pages 6, 7 Announcing the First Endowed Professorship in the College of Natural Sciences
Page 8 Spooky Science, Astronomy Outreach, SDSU Chemistry Research Features on Journal Cover
Page 9 Students Win Business Plan Competition With Aims to Improve Shelf Life of Produce, Summer Researchers
Page 10 NIH Grant Helps Unravel Rare Inflammatory Genetic Disorders, International Excellence in South Dakota
Page 11 The Next Frontier of Science Education: Virtual Reality, SDSU Researchers Uncover how Cancer …