Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Quantifying The Role Of Water Quality On Nitrogen Cycling In A Trophic Estuary, Kayla Gonzalez-Boy

Symposium of Student Scholars

Jobos Bay Estuary is an intertidal, tropical estuary located in southern Puerto Rico. The estuary covers about 12 km² and has a variety of habitats, such as seagrass beds, mangroves, mud flats, and coral reefs, which play important roles in sediment trapping and water quality maintenance. Seagrasses also serve as nursery and feeding grounds and provide shelter for macrofauna. Currently, the role of seagrasses and water quality on nitrogen (N) cycling in trophic estuaries is not well constrained. Understanding variations in sediment-based effects on N cycling rates and transformations, and how they are associated with water quality, is an …

Elucidating The Impacts Of Learning Communities On Retention, Student Sense Of Belonging, And Self-Efficacy In Stem, Honour Williams

Master of Science in Chemical Sciences Theses

Student sense of belonging (SoB) and self-efficacy (SE) are necessary aspects of promoting achievement and success in the STEM fields. This study focuses on how learning communities affect students' SoB and SE in relation to STEM as well as demographics, including race, gender, and first-generation status. Students enrolled in either the introductory chemistry lecture or the first-year experience course (students grouped by similar STEM major) were asked to complete a STEM attributes survey (Likert scale) to assess their overall SoB to the university and their chosen major as well as their level of SE in relations to those fields. To …

Investigating The Activity Of Alternative Warheads For Targeted Covalent Inhibition Of The Inhibitor Vertebrate Lysozyme Protein From Pseudomonas Aeruginosa, Katie Hambrick

Master of Science in Chemical Sciences Theses

Pseudomonas aeruginosa (P. aeruginosa) is a Gram-negative bacterium that causes blood and lung infections in hospital environments due to its ability to survive on improperly sterilized medical equipment. P. aeruginosa has developed several multi-drug resistance mechanisms that make it very difficult to treat with current antibiotics.¹ This presents the need for a new class of antibiotics that cannot be overcome by P. aeruginosa’s mechanisms of resistance.

The primary goal of this project was to develop a small library of inhibitors that could later be incorporated into lead compounds for novel antibiotic drug discovery. One of P. …

Probing The Effect Of Nitrogen And Boron Doping On Structures, Properties, And Stability Of C20 Clusters, Ramsay Revennaugh, Martina Kaledin

Symposium of Student Scholars

Fullerenes are carbon molecules arranged in a closed hollow shell to form spherical-like structures. These clusters exist in various sizes, C_n, with the smallest being C₂₀. C₂₀, often when doped with other elements, has shown promise in creating new materials as a catalyst and as energy storage material. Here, we look at the existence of C₂₀ doped with nitrogen or boron atoms using density functional theory (DFT). C₂₀ is doped with one to three boron or nitrogen atoms, respectively, including the five different C₁₈N₂ / C₁₈B_{2 …}

Ab Initio Calculations Of Vibrational Spectra Of Model Peptides, Katheryn Foust, Martina Kaledin

Symposium of Student Scholars

The function of biological molecules is closely related to their spatial structure and conformational dynamics. Therefore, understanding the structure and functions of small peptides contributes to gaining insight into the behavior of more complex systems. The peptide bond (-CO-NH-) is among the very important binding patterns in biochemistry. It links amino acids together, specifies rigidity to the protein backbone, and includes the two essential docking sites for hydrogen-bond-mediated protein folding and protein aggregation, namely, the C=O acceptor and the N-H donor parts. Therefore, the C=O (amide-I) and N-H (amide-A) vibrations provide sensitive and widely used probes into the structure of …

Bis(Difluoroborylamidinates) With Flexible Ethylene Bridges As Bifunctional Aggregation-Induced Emitters, Connor Welch

Symposium of Student Scholars

4,4-Difluoro-4-bora-3a,4a-diaza-s-indacenes (BODIPYs) represent one of the most prominent classes of dyes, since they are ubiquitously used in protein and DNA labelling, photodynamic therapies, as luminescent tags, sensors, laser dyes, paint and ink compositions, as well as for electroluminescent devices. [1] This is because of their robustness in terms of photochemical stability, polarity and pH changes of their environment, in particular under physiological conditions. The versatility to introduce multiple functional substituents and ability of BODIPYs to strongly absorb UV-light while providing sharp fluorescence peaks, combined with high quantum yields make these dyes highly attractive for numerous applications. Closely related azaBODIPYs offer …

Azomethine-Containing Moieties For Simple And Degradable Conjugated Polymers, Kimberley Bartlett

Master of Science in Chemical Sciences Theses

Conjugated polymers have been studied for various applications such as electrochromics, organic photovoltaics, organic light-emitting diodes, thin film transistors, biosensors, and energy storage materials. They have received significant attention from many researchers because they are relatively inexpensive and possess a high degree of synthetic tailorability that enables tuning of optical, electrochemical, and physical properties. However, many state-of-the-art polymers require synthetic protocols that use multiple arduous synthetic steps, harmful chemical reagents, and produce toxic byproducts. Additionally, the synthesized polymers are not typically designed to be degradable and will accumulate during waste disposal without end-of-life management strategies. Therefore, there is a need …

Principles Of Chemistry-1, Rajnish Singh

KSU Distinguished Course Repository

Principles of Chemistry, chem 1211, is a 3 credit hour course, the first in a two-semester sequence covering the fundamental principles and applications of chemistry for science majors. Course content includes electronic structure of atoms and molecules, bonding fundamentals, fundamentals of chemical reactions, and gas laws. The course is taught asynchronously and the final exam being a national exam offered by the American chemical society, (ACS), that has to be taken in person.