Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons

Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Articles 1 - 2 of 2

Full-Text Articles in Physical Sciences and Mathematics

Biomass Estimation Of Marine Biofilms On Plastic Surfaces, Kian Banihashemi, Fernando Javier Gil Jun 2022

Biomass Estimation Of Marine Biofilms On Plastic Surfaces, Kian Banihashemi, Fernando Javier Gil

Biological Sciences

Plastics have become a major source of marine pollution, which threatens food safety and quality, human health, and marine ecosystems. Due to the drastic negative effects of plastics in a marine environment, alternative biodegradable plastics are being generated that are more eco-friendly and have less environmental impact. Though some of these plastics are known to biodegrade, the process of degradation for bioplastics has not been heavily studied in a marine environment. This pilot project sought to both quantify the process of biodegradation and compare across different methods for effectiveness of biomass estimation, which serves as an indicator of biodegradation. Plastics …


Exploration Of Nucleic Acid Hydrogran Bonding Using Molecular Mechanics And Dft Calculations, Simi Kaur Dec 2019

Exploration Of Nucleic Acid Hydrogran Bonding Using Molecular Mechanics And Dft Calculations, Simi Kaur

Biological Sciences

Many recent theoretical and experimental techniques have been developed to probe the structurefunction relationships of complex biomolecules. The roles of RNAs are dependent upon various intricate structural motifs and interactions, including hairpins, pseudoknots, long range territory contacts, bulges and internal loops, that are not easily captured by these methods. We had previously developed an enhanced replica exchange molecular dynamics method that incorporated secondary structure information in the form of distance restraints in order to effectively overcome kinetic barriers and sample conformational space. In several structures, restrained RNA base pairs near large bulges displayed a preference for stacking over hydrogen bonding …