Other Chemistry Commons^™

Analysis Of Metallic Components Of Gsr From Various Types Of Ammunition And Firearms Utilizing An Sem-Edx, Jenna A. Campbell

Graduate Student Research Symposium

Gunshot residue (GSR) is a chemical reaction that occurs when a firearm is discharged, which emits a cloud of gases from the barrel of the gun. It consists of both the burned and unburned propellant and primer components. These components are either organic or inorganic in nature, respectively. The organic components are located in the gunpowder part of the bullet, while the inorganic components are located in the primer part of the bullet. The primer consists of lead, barium, and antimony. These elements are considered heavy metals. Additionally, lead, barium, and antimony are the three key elements found in the ...

Size Exclusion Chromatography Based Liposomal Protein Extraction (Selpe), Carolyn Barnes

University of Tennessee Honors Thesis Projects

No abstract provided.

Elemental Analysis Of Beer Manufactured In Virginia Satellite Breweries, Jennifer Wiliams

Student Scholar Showcase

Financial incentives from the state and wider distribution potential have lured many west coast brewers to open satellite breweries in Virginia. Quality control is crucial for any brewery and especially important in satellite breweries that need to imitate the standard set by the parent brewery. Zinc, magnesium, iron, sodium manganese, and calcium are trace elements found in wort and are essential for enzymes that catalyze fermentation reactions. These elements protect against cell stress, play a crucial role in flocculation, and can affect the flavoring and coloration of beer. Barley, water, and hops are the sources of these elements in beer ...

Secondary Electronic And Solvent Effects On Regiospecific P-Bromination Of Aromatic Systems, Selahaddin Gumus

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Bromoarenes are important aromatic building blocks that are commonly used to synthesize various functional compounds in pharmaceutical, agrochemical and related industries.^1,2 This great demand for bromoarenes makes their preparation a widely studied area of synthetic organic chemistry. However, further understanding of the reactivity and regiochemistry of aromatic functionalization reactions is still necessary, as much about the secondary substitution and solvent effects remain unknown.

Resonance Theory is a widely used theoretical model to predict the regiospecifity and reactivity of the bromination of various aromatic compounds.³ The reactivity and regiospecificity of many substituted aromatic compounds is well explained using ...

A High Throughput Approach For The Generation Of Orthogonally Interacting Protein Pairs, Justin Lawrie, Xi Song, Wei Niu, Jiantao Guo

Faculty Publications -- Chemistry Department

In contrast to the nearly error-free self-assembly of protein architectures in nature, artificial assembly of protein complexes with pre-defined structure and function in vitro is still challenging. To mimic nature’s strategy to construct pre-defined three-dimensional protein architectures, highly specific proteinprotein interacting pairs are needed. Here we report an effort to create an orthogonally interacting protein pair from its parental pair using a bacteria-based in vivo directed evolution strategy. This high throughput approach features a combination of a negative and a positive selection. The newly developed negative selection from this work was used to remove any protein mutants that retain ...

Modification Of Wheat Gluten For Improvement Of Binding Capacity With Keratin In Hair, Shukun Wang, Danyang Meng, Sisi Wang, Zhong Zhang, Ruijin Yang, Wei Zhao

Faculty Publications in Food Science and Technology

In this study, enzymatic hydrolysis and cationization with epoxypropyldodecyldimethylammonium chloride of wheat protein, an economic protein complex containing great amount of disulfide bonds, were conducted to improve properties such as solubility and disassociation behaviour for recovery of damaged hair when used in shampoo. The optimal conditions for enzymatic hydrolysis were pH 8.2, 55°C with Alcalase for 60min. After the selected hydrolysis, the degree of hydrolysis, nitrogen solubility index, foaming capacity index, foam stability index, emulsifying activity index and emulsion stability index of hydrolysate with 58.71% of shortchain peptides (less than 1000 Da) were 8.81%, 39.07 ...

Crystallographic,Vibrational Modes And Optical Properties Data Of Α-Dipabcrystal, Ahmad Alsaad, Chris M. Marin, Nabil Alaqtash, Hsien-Wen Chao, Tsun-Hsu Chang, Chin Li Cheung, A. Ahmad, I. A. Qattan, Renat F. Sabirianov

Faculty Publications -- Chemistry Department

The Crystallographic data of the α-DIPAB sample was measured using powder X-ray diffraction (PXRD). The crystal structure was also optimized using density functional based method. The calculations were performed both including vander Waals (vdW) interactions and excluding them to quantify the effects of vdW interaction on the crystal formation. The vibrational modes of DIPAB crystal corresponding to the Bromine deficient samples are calculated and presented. These show the origin of drastic change in dielectric response in Br deficient samples as compared to the ideal stoichiometric DIPAB crystal (Alsaad et al. 2018) [4]. Optical properties of an ideal α-DIPAB were calculated ...

Toward The Detection Of The Triatomic Negative Ion Spn−: Spectroscopy And Potential Energy Surfaces, Tarek Trabelsi, Majdi Hochlaf, Joseph S. Francisco

Faculty Publications -- Chemistry Department

High level theoretical calculations using coupled-cluster theory were performed to provide an accurate description of the electronic structure, spectroscopic properties, and stability of the triatomic negative ion comprising S, N, and P. The adiabatic electron affinities (AEAs) and vertical detachment energies

(VDEs) of PNS, SPN, PSN, and cyc-PSN were calculated. The predicted AEA and VDE of the linear SPN isomer are large: 2.24 and 3.04 eV, respectively. The potential energy surfaces (PESs) of the lowest-lying electronic states of the SPN isomer along the PN and SP bond lengths and bond angle were mapped. A set of spectroscopic ...

Polar Ozone Depletion: Mario J. Molina, Kirsten Oberg

Natural Sciences Poster Sessions

This poster for the Natural Sciences Poster Session at Parkland College features the contribution of Mario J. Molina to the field of atmospheric chemistry, especially in regards to the formation and decomposition aspects of the ozone layer.

Microstructural Changes To Proso Millet Protein Bodies Upon Cooking And Digestion, Paridhi Gulati, You Zhou, Christian Elowsky, Devin J. Rose

Faculty Publications in Food Science and Technology

Cooking results in a drastic decline in digestibility of proso millet proteins, panicins. Scanning electron and confocal microscopy were used to observe morphological changes in proso millet protein bodies upon cooking and digestion that could be associated with the loss in digestibility. Spherical protein bodies (1–2.5 mm) were observed in proso millet flour and extracted protein. Cooking did not result in any noticeable change in the size or shape of the protein bodies. However, upon digestion with pepsin the poor digestibility of cooked proso millet protein was clearly evident from the differences in microstructure of the protein bodies ...

Characterization Of Solution-Phase Drug-Protein Interactions By Ultrafast Affinity Extraction, Sandya Beeram, Xiwei Zheng, Kyungah Suh, David S. Hage

Faculty Publications -- Chemistry Department

A number of tools based on high-performance affinity separations have been developed for studying drug-protein interactions. An example of one recent approach is ultrafast affinity extraction. This method has been employed to examine the free (or non-bound) fractions of drugs and other solutes in simple or complex samples that contain soluble binding agents. These free fractions have also been used to determine the binding constants and rate constants for the interactions of drugs with these soluble agents. This report describes the general principles of ultrafast affinity extraction and the experimental conditions under which it can be used to characterize such ...

Applying The Diffusion Of Innovation Theory To Characterize Stem Faculty Attending Professional Development Programs, Dihua Xue

Student Research Projects, Dissertations, and Theses - Chemistry Department

Instructional practices in undergraduate STEM courses have been static for decades, with a primary focus on lecture. Over the last twenty years, extensive research on how people learn science has led to the development of innovative instructional strategies that have been shown to enhance students’ learning and interest. These in turn have led to calls to reform instructional practices in STEM fields at the undergraduate level. However, evidence shows that these research-based instructional strategies have largely not been incorporated into classes. The promotion of these new strategies has been mostly conducted through workshops. Although numerous studies have evaluated the impact ...

Eigenstate–Specific Temperatures In Two–Level Paramagnetic Spin Lattices, Mark Masthay, Calley N. Eads, Amber N. Johnson, R. Gerald Keil, Phillip Miller, Ross E. Jones, Joe D. Mashburn, Harry B. Fannin

Chemistry Faculty Publications

Increasing interest in the thermodynamics of small and/or isolated systems, in combination with recent observations of negative temperatures of atoms in ultracold optical lattices, has stimulated the need for estimating the conventional, canonical temperature Tconvc of systems in equilibrium with heat baths using eigenstate-specific temperatures (ESTs). Four distinct ESTs—continuous canonical, discrete canonical, continuous microcanonical, and discrete microcanonical—are accordingly derived for two-level paramagnetic spin lattices (PSLs) in external magnetic fields. At large N, the four ESTs are intensive, equal to Tconvc, and obey all four laws of thermodynamics. In contrast, for N < 1000, the ESTs of most PSL eigenstates are non-intensive, differ from Tconvc, and violate each of the thermodynamic laws. Hence, in spite of their similarities to Tconvc at large N, the ESTs are not ...

Interactions Between Amyloid-Beta And Microglial Cells, Lisa Gouwens

Dissertations

Alzheimer’s disease (AD), the most common cause of dementia, is a neurodegenerative condition characterized by loss of memory and intellectual abilities. Intracellular plaques of aggregated amyloid-beta (Ab) protein are a well-known pathology associated with AD. Although symptoms usually appear late in life, the accumulation of Ab begins decades earlier and causes activation of microglia, the brain’s immune cells. The ensuing inflammation contributes significantly to neurodegeneration. Determination of the particular form of Ab that causes the most damage in the brain is one of the major questions in the AD field. My research focused on the interactions of microglia ...

Ensemble-Based Modeling And Rigidity Decomposition Of Allosteric Interaction Networks And Communication Pathways In Cyclin-Dependent Kinases: Differentiating Kinase Clients Of The Hsp90-Cdc37 Chaperone, Gabrielle Stetz, Amanda Tse, Gennady M. Verkhivker

Mathematics, Physics, and Computer Science Faculty Articles and Research

The overarching goal of delineating molecular principles underlying differentiation of protein kinase clients and chaperone-based modulation of kinase activity is fundamental to understanding activity of many oncogenic kinases that require chaperoning of Hsp70 and Hsp90 systems to attain a functionally competent active form. Despite structural similarities and common activation mechanisms shared by cyclin-dependent kinase (CDK) proteins, members of this family can exhibit vastly different chaperone preferences. The molecular determinants underlying chaperone dependencies of protein kinases are not fully understood as structurally similar kinases may often elicit distinct regulatory responses to the chaperone. The regulatory divergences observed for members of CDK ...

Resin Monoterpene Defenses Decline Within Three Widespread Species Of Pine (Pinus) Along A 1530-M Elevational Gradient, Scott Ferrenberg, Joseph M. Langenhan, Jeffry B. Mitton

University Libraries Open Access Fund Supported Publications

The elevational gradient in plant defense (EGPD) hypothesis posits that natural enemy pressures increase alongside temperature across elevational climatic gradients, thereby selecting for enhanced defenses at lower elevations while leaving plants less defended at higher elevations. Phylogenetically constrained tests of this hypothesis are uncommon, with tests focused on defenses of mature trees in natural settings being exceedingly rare. In the absence of this information, predicting the spatiotemporal dynamics of forest pests that preferentially attack mature trees is rendered more difficult. Tree properties such as age, growth rate, and size have all been correlated with levels of tree defenses against insect ...

Phase Behavior Of Binary And Polydisperse Suspensions Of Compressible Microgels Controlled By Selective Particle Deswelling, A. Scotti, U. Gasser, E. S. Herman, Jun Han, A. Menzel, L. Andrew Lyon, A. Fernandez-Nieves

Biology, Chemistry, and Environmental Sciences Faculty Articles and Research

We investigate the phase behavior of suspensions of poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) (pNIPAM) microgels with either bimodal or polydisperse size distribution. We observe a shift of the fluid-crystal transition to higher concentrations depending on the polydispersity or the fraction of large particles in suspension. Crystallization is observed up to polydispersities as high as 18.5%, and up to a number fraction of large particles of 29% in bidisperse suspensions. The crystal structure is random hexagonal close-packed as in monodisperse pNIPAM microgel suspensions.We explain our experimental results by considering the effect of bound counterions. Above a critical particle concentration, these cause deswelling ...

Nonlinear Oscillatory Dynamics Of The Hardening Of Calcium Phosphate Bone Cements, Vuk Uskoković, Julietta V. Rau

Pharmacy Faculty Articles and Research

Here we report on the nonlinear, oscillatory dynamics detected in the evolution of phase composition during the setting of different calcium phosphate cements, two of which evolved toward brushite and one toward hydroxyapatite as the final product. Whereas both brushite-forming cements contained iondoped b-tricalcium phosphate as the initial phase, the zinc-containing one yielded scholzite as an additional phase during setting and the oscillations between these two products were pronounced throughout the entire 80 h setting period, long after the hardening processes was over from the mechanical standpoint. Oscillations in the copper-containing system involved the amount of brushite as the main ...

Parallelization Of Molecular Docking Algorithms Using Cuda For Use In Drug Discovery, Brandon Stewart, Jonathan Fine, Gaurav Chopra Phd

The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium

Traditional drug discovery methodology uses a multitude of software packages to design and evaluate new drug-like compounds. While software packages implement a wide variety of methods, the serial (i.e. single core) implementation for many of these algorithms, prohibit large scale docking, such as proteome-wide docking (i.e. thousands of compounds with thousands of proteins). Several docking algorithms can be parallelized, significantly reducing the runtime of the calculations, thus enabling large-scale docking. Implementing algorithms that take advantage of the distributed nature of graphical processing units (GPUs) via the Compute Unified Device Architecture (CUDA) enables us to efficiently implement massively parallel ...

Functionalization Of Indium-Based Quantum Dots For Use As A Non-Viral Gene Therapy Vector, Nicholas A. Mundt

MSU Graduate Theses

This work aims to develop functionalized, water-soluble indium-based quantum dots (QDs) as a non-viral gene therapy vector. The QDs were solubilized in water by exchanging native hydrophobic surface ligands with 11-mercaptoundecanioc acid (MUA); an amphiphilic ligand providing terminal carboxylate groups that impart water solubility to the QDs. The aqueous QDs were then functionalized with a terminal tertiary amine to impart a positive surface charge, allowing negatively-charged DNA to complex with the nanoparticles. The QDs were characterized via electrophoresis to determine their ability to bind DNA. Results show that further work is needed to optimize DNA binding. In addition, this work ...