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Design, Synthesis, Applications Of Polymers And Dendrimers, Alekhya Nimmagadda

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

WHO has reported that antibiotic resistance is the third major cause of human death all over the globe. Recent study, has focused on the development of new antibacterial resistance drugs. Herein, we tried to synthesis a series of polymers that can mimic the HDPs. HDPs can target the bacterial cell membrane and they have less chances to develop bacterial resistance. We synthesized the amphiphilic polycarbonates that are highly selective to Gram-positive bacteria, including multidrug resistant pathogens. The membrane disruption activity of these polymers was proved by fluorescence and TEM studies and the drug resistance study showed that the polymers don’t …

Design And Synthesis Of Cpg-Lytic Peptide Conjugate, Brachytherapy Beads And A Combinatorial Library Of Primary Amines Used As Potential Therapeutics In The Treatment Of Cancers, Josanne-Dee Woodroffe

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Cancer remains one of the most feared diseases affecting the modern world. Second to heart disease, it is the largest cause of deaths, affecting one in three persons. Cancer cells are formed when normal, healthy cells become damage, losing their normal regulatory mechanism that control cell growth. There are many different types and progression of these cancer cells that determine the type of treatment a patient receives. The primary focus of this dissertation is to propose three studies of anticancer agents. In Chapter one, a CpG-lytic peptide conjugate was designed to target receptors on the cell membrane to concentrate the …

Metal-Organic Frameworks And Mof-Derived Carbon Materials For Fuel Cell Applications, Kia Williams

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Rapid industrial globalization and technological development and energy consumption across the globe has significantly increased in response to mounting energy needs. The necessity for alternative and sustainable energy conversion devices has become apparent with the growth of energy utilization. In recent years, many research efforts have been made in the development of low-cost, efficient, environmentally friendly energy conversion devices. One type of energy conversion device, polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs), uses hydrogen oxidation at the anode and oxygen reduction at the cathode, with a solid-state proton conducting membrane between to generate energy with water as a by-product. PEMFCs use …

Sol-Gel Niobia-Based Sorbents For The Enrichment Of Organophosphorus Compounds By Capillary Microextraction Online Coupled To High Performance Liquid Chromatography, Sheshanka Kesani

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Sample preparation is a key step in chemical analysis, and includes isolation of target analytes, removal of interferences, preconcentration, and/or modification of target analytes (if needed). Sample preparation is also the most time-consuming and error-prone step in the whole analytical process. Traditional sample preparation techniques involve hazardous solvents. Considering the environmental and health safety, it is desirable to reduce or eliminate organic solvents in sample preparation. Solid phase microextraction (SPME) was introduced as a solvent free sample preparation technique. Capillary microextraction (CME) is one of the formats of SPME that can be easily coupled to high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). …

Studies Of Polyacrylate Based Nanoparticle Emulsions, Faeez Mahzamani

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Self-stabilizing polyacrylate nanoparticle emulsions were previously investigated in the Turos laboratory, and provided a new model for delivering antibiotics via encapsulation or covalent binding of the desired bioactive compound within the polymer nanoparticles. The method used the in water, free radical emulsion polymerization of butyl acrylate/styrene mixture to form the polymer chain stabilized with a surfactant. Current research in this dissertation further explores the versatility of related nanoparticle emulsion systems. Chapter 2 provides an overview of the loading of certain therapeutic drugs, such as 5-aminosalicylic acid and derivatives thereof, for the treatment of irritable bowel syndrome. Chapter 3 explores homo-polymer …

Formation Of Carbon-Carbon And Carbon-Hetero Bonds Through Gold Catalysis, Boliang Dong

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation mainly contains two parts: one is C-X (C, O, S) bond formation through gold(I) catalysis, one is new applications via gold(I/III) redox catalysis.

In first part, gold(I) catalysts would be introduced and their general applications, then the TA-Au species will be emphasized including the design, synthesis, characters and their application in catalysis. The applications are well developed during the past decade in our group, but here only involves three examples regarding C-C, C-O and C-S bond formations. From these effective applications, the unique stability and reactivity of TA-Au will be studied and explained, which is the reason and …

Synthesis, In Vitro Characterization And Applications Of Novel 8-Aminoquinoline Fluorescent Probes, Adonis Mcqueen

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Malaria is a parasitic disease that is caused by the plasmodium parasite. Plasmodium infection has affected man for thousands of years. With advances in drug discovery over the past century, malaria has evolved to possess resistance to most mainline therapeutics. This war of drug discovery vs plasmodium evolution continues to be fought to this very day, with attempts to eradicate malaria worldwide. Frontline treatments such as chloroquine, artemisinin, and atovaquone/proguanil have all seen parasitic resistance in strains of P. vivax as well as P. falciparum. While plasmodium possesses resistance to most classes of anti-malarials, the 8-aminoquinoline (8-AQ) class has …

Magnetic Nanostructure Application In Sers Detection Of Melatonin And Resonance Raman Characterization Of Binding Of Catechol Moieties With Antibiotic, Siqi Sun

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Raman spectroscopy provides characteristic peaks of the target molecules that can be observed with appropriate laser, spectrometer and detector. These characteristic peaks can reveal ‘fingerprint’ information of a molecule even in a myriad of cases and combinations. It makes Raman spectroscopy a highly sensitive and selective analytical technique. Raman spectroscopy has a variety of chemical, environmental and biological applications. In this dissertation, modified Raman method are applied in life sciences and pharmaceutical studies.

The major challenge against development of Raman spectroscopy is how to improve the intensity of Raman signal. Surface Enhance Raman Scattering (SERS) and resonance Raman(RR) are utilized …

Chemical Investigations Of Fungal Natural Products For Drug Discovery, Danielle H. Demers

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Natural products have, historically, played an important role in drug discovery. Nevertheless, drug resistance, pathogen evolution, and global climate change threaten human health and nearly all current anti-infective treatments on the market today. It is undeniable that new drug discovery efforts are needed with increasing urgency.

Bolstered by a rich history of discovering treatments in the world around us, natural products chemists continue to look to the environment with increasing understanding and emerging technologies that allow efficient, effective isolation of new chemical entities. This thesis will describe one such endeavor.

Focusing on fungal natural products, herein is described the isolation …

Structure And Activity Of Metallo-Peptides, Christian C. Tang

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Metal ions are ubiquitously found in all living systems and play vital roles in supporting life forms by performing an array of biological activities. Such biological activities include binding and transforming organic molecules, and also acting as active centers and cofactors for catalysis of various acid-base and redox reactions in biological system. The main focus in bioinorganic chemistry is to elucidate the structural and functional roles of metals in biological systems. Among all transition metal ions, Cu²⁺ and Fe³⁺ are especially versatile and important due to their abilities to go through redox efficiently.

This dissertation can be divided …

Diversifying Homogenous Au(I)-Catalysis Through New Reaction Discovery, Stephen Motika

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Homogenous Au(I)-catalysis has become a valuable synthetic tool to activate a host of unsaturated carbon functional groups towards nucleophilic addition. Over the course of the past two decades, many have embarked on new journeys within this field. Notably, the advancements in this field hinge on the development of new ligand systems that impart novel reactivity at the metal. Our group has focused on this area, as we have successfully demonstrated the utility of 1,2,3-triazoles as ligands for gold and a host of other transition metals and Lewis acids. With respect to gold catalysis, these ligands enhance the stability of the …

Investigating Students’ Basic Needs And Motivation In College Chemistry Courses With The Lens Of Self-Determination Theory, Yujuan Liu

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

More graduates in science, technology, engineering, and mathmetics (STEM) fields are needed to keep our nation’s preeminance in the global fields of technology and science. However, fewer than 40% of students who intend to major in STEM fields when entering college complete a STEM degree. Therefore, it is important to explore factors to improve student persistence in STEM fields at the college level as well as to understand the interrelationship between student motivation, academic achievement, and persistence. Motivation is strongly associated with student achievement and persistence; meanwhile, academic achievement can also affect persistence. Self-determination theory (SDT) represents a framework of …

Toward The Synthesis Of Naphthalene-Bridged Bis-Triazole Bimetallic Complexes, Sean M. Johnson

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Bimetallic complexes are known to have unique electronic properties and are used in a variety of organic transformations as catalysts. The use of naphthalene-bridged bis- triazoles (NBT) for bimetallic complexes is unknown. NBTs have the unique property of being fluorescent stemming from a twisted intramolecular charge transfer. With the non- coplanar geometry and the distance between the 1,2,3-triazole rings, we hypothesized that 1,8-bis(4-phenyl-2H-1,2,3-triazol-2-yl)naphthalene (12) would be a suitable ligand to synthesize a bimetallic complex. The synthesis of 12 was optimized for large scale synthesis and was synthesized on a 78 mmol scale in 15% total yield. Metal complexation …

Photopolymerization Synthesis Of Magnetic Nanoparticle Embedded Nanogels For Targeted Biotherapeutic Delivery, Daniel Jonwal Denmark

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Conventional therapeutic techniques treat the patient by delivering a biotherapeutic to the entire body rather than the target tissue. In the case of chemotherapy, the biotherapeutic is a drug that kills healthy and diseased cells indiscriminately which can lead to undesirable side effects. With targeted delivery, biotherapeutics can be delivered directly to the diseased tissue significantly reducing exposure to otherwise healthy tissue. Typical composite delivery devices are minimally composed of a stimuli responsive polymer, such as poly(N-isopropylacrylamide), allowing for triggered release when heated beyond approximately 32 °C, and magnetic nanoparticles which enable targeting as well as provide a mechanism for …

Germania- And Silica-Based Perfluorinated And Non-Fluorinated Sol-Gel Sorbents For Capillary Microextraction In Chromatographic Analysis, Emre Seyyal

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Sample preparation is the most time-consuming and error-prone step in chemical analysis. Miniaturization and automation of the sample preparation equipment eliminating or reducing the use of hazardous organic solvents, online hyphenation of sample preparation with analytical instruments in a cost-effective way are important factors that need to be considered to design and implement innovative sample preparation techniques and strategies. Solid-phase microextraction (SPME) is a simple, environmentally benign technique well suited for hyphenation with analytical instruments. However, poor coating stability is a significant drawback of SPME employing conventionally prepared coatings. This shortcoming arises from the lack of chemical bonding between the …

Exploring Student Learning In Post-Secondary General Chemistry: Novel Tools For Measuring Linked Concepts And Study Habits, Li Ye

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation presents novel tools to help instructors measure students linking of content knowledge and the actions students perform for studying in the context of post-secondary General Chemistry.

The first tool described in this work is Creative Exercises (CEs), an open-ended assessment that has the potential to promote students making connections across the content covered in General Chemistry. Students are given a simple prompt that describes a chemistry situation, and asked to write as many statements as they can that are correct, distinct and relevant to the prompt and the course content. The written responses to CEs from both in-class …

On The Conformational Dynamics Of Dna: A Perspective From Molecular Dynamics Simulations, Ning Ma

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The main focus of my dissertation is on the conformational motion of DNA, studied by applying tools from the computational chemistry field. In addition, studies of relative α- and 310 helical stabilities in peptides/mini-proteins, and a molecular flooding study of the retinoid X-receptor as part of a continuing drug design effort are presented. In molecular biology, it has been well known that sequence determines structure, and structure controls function. For proteins or DNA to work properly, the correct configuration is required. Mutations may alter the structure, which can cause malfunction. Non-mutational effects, such as a change in environment may also …

Fatty Acid Biomarker Detection For Breast Cancer Using Differential Mobility Spectrometry With Non-Radioactive Ion Source, James Joseph Alberti

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Differential Mobility Spectrometry (DMS) using a non-radioactive ion source (NRIS) is investigated as a possible medical diagnostic instrument for near real-time detection of breast cancer biomarkers. In previous clinical studies, concentrations of Linoleic, Palmitic and Stearic fatty acids have been observed at different levels in women with carcinoma breast cancer versus women with benign tumors or healthy women showing no signs of breast cancer. Present diagnostic methods require a biopsy of the suspect tissue and a microscopic lab analysis performed to determine its disease state. This process can take hours or days before the patient and doctor are informed of …

New Reaction Discoveries In Gold Catalysis, Seyedmorteza Hosseyni

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In this dissertation, gold catalyst was employed to catalyze intermolecular reactions. Intramolecular reactions were far more advanced than intermolecular reaction in gold catalysis. With finding suitable ligands for gold catalysts, we were able to develop several transformations to synthesize interesting building blocks in organic chemistry including: allenes, furans, spiros, oxepines, propargyl ethers and ketones. These functionalities were synthesized by the use of triazole-gold(I) catalyst. Triazole, as a ligand bond to gold, showed enhanced stability of the catalyst, which resulted in better yields. Gold(I)/(III) redox chemistry also used for cyclopropanol ring openings which resulted in synthesizing substituted ketones.

Hydroalkynylation Of Oxocarbenium Intermediates Via Au(I) Catalysis, Courtney Smith Smith

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Au(I) catalysis has recently emerged as a powerful tool for the realization of a broad range of organic transformations. Despite this rapid development, attaining selectivity and maintaining catalyst stability remain significant challenges. Rational ligand design, such as the employment of NHC or TA ligands, has been used to confront these issues. This thesis focuses on the use of Au(I) catalysts bearing these ligands for the selective hydroalkynylation of enol ethers. By employing a TA-Au stabilized catalyst, [(OAr)₃PAu(TA-H)]OTf, the intermolecular hydroalkynylation of enol ethers, a substrate that is well-known to promote decomposition of the gold cation, was efficiently achieved. …