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Full-Text Articles in Pharmacology, Toxicology and Environmental Health

Monitoring Mammals At Multiple Scales: Case Studies From Carnivore Communities, Kadambari Devarajan Oct 2021

Monitoring Mammals At Multiple Scales: Case Studies From Carnivore Communities, Kadambari Devarajan

Doctoral Dissertations

Carnivores are distributed widely and threatened by habitat loss, poaching, climate change, and disease. They are considered integral to ecosystem function through their direct and indirect interactions with species at different trophic levels. Given the importance of carnivores, it is of high conservation priority to understand the processes driving carnivore assemblages in different systems. It is thus essential to determine the abiotic and biotic drivers of carnivore community composition at different spatial scales and address the following questions: (i) What factors influence carnivore community composition and diversity? (ii) How do the factors influencing carnivore communities vary across spatial and temporal …


High Throughput Analysis To Study Emerging Pollutants And Nanoparticle Fate In Biological Systems, Xiaolong He Jan 2021

High Throughput Analysis To Study Emerging Pollutants And Nanoparticle Fate In Biological Systems, Xiaolong He

Doctoral Dissertations

”The increasing applications of emerging and fugitive contaminants (EFCs) and engineered nanoparticles (ENPs) attract significant research interest for their potential risks to human health and the environment. In order to assess the health risks of these emerging contaminants, rapid and reliable analytical methods to measure the concentrations and fates of these contaminants are imperative. This dissertation focuses on the developments of advanced analytical methods and their applications to study those emerging contaminants in crop plant and simulated gastric fluid (SGF). Three types of mass spectrometry based methodologies have been developed, one is freeze-thaw/centrifugation extraction followed by high performance liquid chromatography …


Bioactivity/Cytotoxicity Of Micro-/Nano-Materials And Novel Development Of Fiber-Optic Probes For Single Cell Monitoring, Qingbo Yang Jan 2016

Bioactivity/Cytotoxicity Of Micro-/Nano-Materials And Novel Development Of Fiber-Optic Probes For Single Cell Monitoring, Qingbo Yang

Doctoral Dissertations

"Manufactured nano-/micro-materials (MNMs) have been widely used and their interactions with niche biological environment are highly concerned for both of their biohazardous and bioactive effects, whereas no available comprehensive evaluations or regulations have been provided yet. This dissertation thus focuses on three major aspects: 1) fundamental toxicity understandings of a typical MNMs (zinc oxide nanoparticles), 2) bioactivity evaluations of representative bioactive MNMs, and 3) development of novel micro-probes for high spatial resolution monitoring. Firstly, the NP's concentration, irradiation, hydrodynamic size, and the localized pH, ionic strength, NP zeta-potential as well as dissolved oxygen levels were found correlated with the production …


Physicochemical And Toxicological Assessment Of Antimicrobial Ε-Polylysine-Pectin Complexes, Cynthia L. Lopez Pena Aug 2015

Physicochemical And Toxicological Assessment Of Antimicrobial Ε-Polylysine-Pectin Complexes, Cynthia L. Lopez Pena

Doctoral Dissertations

ε-Polylysine is an appealing FDA-approved, all natural antimicrobial biopolymer effective against a wide range of microorganisms. Its implementation is greatly limited by its strong cationic charge, which has been linked to instability in food systems, perceived astringency and bitterness, and the ability to inhibit lipid digestion. Previous studies have shown that controlled complexation of ε-polylysine with anionic pectin is able to prevent instability and astringency in simplified model food systems, while maintaining the antimicrobial character of polylysine. Isothermal titration calorimetry, micro-electrophoresis, microscopy, and turbidity analyses of the stability of electrostatic pectin-polylysine complexes in the presence of strongly anionic κ-carrageenan, and …


Ligand-Receptor Interactions For Supramolecular Disassembly With Applications In Screening And Drug Delivery, Diego Amado Torres Aug 2014

Ligand-Receptor Interactions For Supramolecular Disassembly With Applications In Screening And Drug Delivery, Diego Amado Torres

Doctoral Dissertations

Proteins have the capacity to bind specific sets of compounds known as ligands, these are small molecules with a recurrent theme in their molecular design that is a characteristic exploited here to (i) identify particular affinities of small molecules for proteins with the aim of using them as ligands, inhibitors, or targeting moieties in more complex systems by means of a methodology that screens small molecules based on protein affinity; (ii) decorate a self-assembling supramolecular system at different positions, making it responsive to a complementary protein with the aim of exploring differences in disassembly and sensitivity of the release of …


A Geospatial Based Decision Framework For Extending Marssim Regulatory Principles Into The Subsurface, Robert Nathan Stewart Aug 2011

A Geospatial Based Decision Framework For Extending Marssim Regulatory Principles Into The Subsurface, Robert Nathan Stewart

Doctoral Dissertations

The Multi-Agency Radiological Site Survey Investigation Manual (MARSSIM) is a regulatory guidance document regarding compliance evaluation of radiologically contaminated soils and buildings (USNRC, 2000). Compliance is determined by comparing radiological measurements to established limits using a combination of hypothesis testing and scanning measurements. Scanning allows investigators to identify localized pockets of contamination missed during sampling and allows investigators to assess radiological exposure at different spatial scales. Scale is important in radiological dose assessment as regulatory limits can vary with the size of the contaminated area and sites are often evaluated at more than one scale (USNRC, 2000). Unfortunately, scanning is …