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Chemistry

Theses/Dissertations

2022

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Articles 601 - 621 of 621

Full-Text Articles in Physical Sciences and Mathematics

Development Of Fluorescence Based Approaches To Understand Astrocyte Biology In The Context Of Nicotine And Nicotinic Receptor Activity, Surya P. Aryal Jan 2022

Development Of Fluorescence Based Approaches To Understand Astrocyte Biology In The Context Of Nicotine And Nicotinic Receptor Activity, Surya P. Aryal

Theses and Dissertations--Chemistry

Smoking and tobacco use (STU) is a major global health problem and worldwide more than six million people die due to tobacco related diseases each year. Although majority of smokers try to quit smoking several times in their life, traditional therapeutic approaches, which focus only on neuronal cells, have a very low success rate. Understanding the effect of nicotine on glial cells, synaptic communication and blood vasculature in the brain can provide further insights on the neurobiology of substance abuse and can potentially help to design better therapeutic approaches. Glial cells are non-excitable cells in the brain which do not …

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Nanomaterial Synthesis And Real Time Investigation Of Thermal Effects On Nanomaterial And Nano-Interfaces For Real World Applications, Rose H. Pham Jan 2022

Nanomaterial Synthesis And Real Time Investigation Of Thermal Effects On Nanomaterial And Nano-Interfaces For Real World Applications, Rose H. Pham

Theses and Dissertations--Chemistry

As interest in nanomaterials and nanotechnology continues to grow, so does the need for more efficient and economical synthesis methods to keep up with the demand. The applications for nanomaterials are seemingly endless as they have functions in energy, biomedical, environmental, and many more. Working to develop different morphologies and sizes of nanomaterials will further help expand its utility. With the use of advanced characterization techniques such as in situ transmission electron microscopy (TEM), real time studies on the effects of external forces on nanomaterials are possible under controlled environments. This will give insight on how nanomaterials will perform in …

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Metal Nanoparticle Synthesis Via Laser-Induced Photochemical Reduction Of Metal Salts, Laysa M. Frias Batista Jan 2022

Metal Nanoparticle Synthesis Via Laser-Induced Photochemical Reduction Of Metal Salts, Laysa M. Frias Batista

Theses and Dissertations

Significant attention has been focused on metal nanoparticles (MNPs) due to their unique optical, catalytic, and electronic properties. In the last two decades, laser synthesis techniques have emerged as versatile routes to MNPs that enable control over particle size, shape, and surface chemistry without the use of chemical reducing agents or surface-blocking capping ligands. A method gaining increasing attention is the direct laser-driven reduction of metal salts, called Laser Reduction in Liquid (LRL). LRL typically involves the use of intense laser pulses of picosecond or femtosecond duration to ionize and dissociate solvent molecules, generating plasmas with reactive chemical species such …

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Synthesis And Modeling Of Manganese Ferrite Nanoparticles For Magnetic Hyperthermia Applications, Margaret E. Thornton Jan 2022

Synthesis And Modeling Of Manganese Ferrite Nanoparticles For Magnetic Hyperthermia Applications, Margaret E. Thornton

Theses and Dissertations

Biologically targeted magnetic hyperthermia (MH) is a promising cancer therapeutic that is both non-invasive and has the potential to serve as a single-modality cancer treatment. MH operates through the elevation of temperatures between 40-43 °C to induce apoptosis in malignant tumor cells, while the small size of the magnetic nanoparticles preserves the healthy surrounding tissue. At present, MH is limited by low heating efficiency and heterogenous outcomes, and treatment requires direct-injection of the nanoparticles, excluding deep-tissue and metastatic tumors from the therapy. The most popular candidates for MH are the spinel ferrites iron oxide and manganese iron oxide (MFO). These …

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Behavioral Screening And Chiral Bioanalysis Of Emerging Stimulant-Type Drugs In Rats, Tyson R. Baird Jan 2022

Behavioral Screening And Chiral Bioanalysis Of Emerging Stimulant-Type Drugs In Rats, Tyson R. Baird

Theses and Dissertations

The epidemic of drug use in the United States and elsewhere in the world has resulted in tragic loss of life and substantial economic costs. Novel psychoactive substances (NPS) are one of the contributors to this problem, and the lack of information about many of these drugs compounds their risk. This dissertation proposes a strategy to use intracranial self-stimulation (ICSS) as a behavioral screening tool to assess emerging drugs of abuse for their abuse potential in order to generate a proactive threat assessment. A series of stimulant-type drugs including methcathinone, α-pyrrolidinohexanophenone (α-PHP), cocaine, and the phenyltropane analogs of cocaine WIN35428 …

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Asymmetric Cuh-Catalyzed Reductive Coupling Of Alleneamides With Carbonyl Electrophiles And The Mechanistic Investigation Into The Suzuki-Miyaura Cross-Couplings Of Electron-Deficient Systems, Samantha L. Gargaro Jan 2022

Asymmetric Cuh-Catalyzed Reductive Coupling Of Alleneamides With Carbonyl Electrophiles And The Mechanistic Investigation Into The Suzuki-Miyaura Cross-Couplings Of Electron-Deficient Systems, Samantha L. Gargaro

Theses and Dissertations

Most natural products and other biologically active small molecules contain multiple stereogenic heteroatoms throughout their carbon scaffold. As a result, methods to install these multi-heteroatom functionalities efficiently are highly desirable. Reductive coupling reactions have been studied extensively, and reductive allylation has been a key method for generating chiral secondary and tertiary allylic alcohols. This work focuses on utilizing naturally abundant and inexpensive Cu for the asymmetric reductive coupling of alleneamides with carbonyl electrophiles to access highly functionalized multi-heteroatom scaffolds that are difficult to produce via traditional methods. Described herein are methods for these asymmetric reductive coupling reactions. Chapter 1 describes …

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Synthesis And Characterization Of Multimetallic Clusters Featuring Iron, Cobalt, And 2,6-Bis(Trialkylsilylamino)Pyridines, Lynn Nguyen Jan 2022

Synthesis And Characterization Of Multimetallic Clusters Featuring Iron, Cobalt, And 2,6-Bis(Trialkylsilylamino)Pyridines, Lynn Nguyen

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Extended metal atom chain (EMAC) complexes are multimetallic complexes of three or more metals, often containing M-M bonds, with the metal ions arranged linearly. These complexes have significant potential as molecular wires. They can elicit unique physical properties and reactivities, sometimes a result of direct magnetic exchange between metal centers, especially when incorporating first row transition metals. The synthesis of the first linear, triiron (II) complex with 2,6-bis[(trimethylsilyl)amino]pyridine (H2LMe) featuring Fe-Fe bonding from our group, Fe3LMe3, motivated the expansion of linear multimetallic EMAC complexes with Fe and Co, incorporating M-M bonds. …

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Characterization Of Functionalized Carbon Nanotubes And Polystyrene/Cnt Composites Prepared With Microwave-Induced Polymerization, Allen Hulette Jan 2022

Characterization Of Functionalized Carbon Nanotubes And Polystyrene/Cnt Composites Prepared With Microwave-Induced Polymerization, Allen Hulette

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The use of carbon nanotubes in polymer composites can increase the mechanical properties of the resulting product. Carbon nanotubes are known to have chemical interactions that make them attracted to one another and fall out of solution. To reduce this agglomeration and disperse the mechanical properties throughout the composite, functional groups are covalently added to the carbon nanotubes. Another known property of carbon nanotubes is their ability to absorb microwaves and convert it into other forms of energy. This research investigates the effects of carbon nanotube absorption of microwaves and initiation of styrene monomer polymerization. Grignard reactions are used to …

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Covalent Modifications As Targets And Means For Research In Intrinsically Disordered Proteins, Derek Mccaffery Jan 2022

Covalent Modifications As Targets And Means For Research In Intrinsically Disordered Proteins, Derek Mccaffery

WWU Graduate School Collection

A reported 33% of eukaryotic proteins are predicted to contain intrinsically disordered regions (IDRs) over 30 residues in length. IDRs are regions of protein which natively exist in an unfolded conformation. Due to their highly dynamic nature, many common methods of inquiry such as crystallography and NMR can be thwarted. As a result, valuable analysis such as probing function, dynamics and binding interfaces are unable to be performed. To minimize these problems, researchers typically study shorter IDRs. We probed fragments of plant protein villin 4 (VLN4) for covalent modifications to explore its regulation and degradation. Disordered regions of proteins have …

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Sortase-Mediated Ligation To Investigate Large Idr-Containing Cytoskeletal Regulators, Melissa Oueld Es Cheikh Jan 2022

Sortase-Mediated Ligation To Investigate Large Idr-Containing Cytoskeletal Regulators, Melissa Oueld Es Cheikh

WWU Graduate School Collection

About 43% of eukaryotic proteins contain intrinsically disordered regions (IDRs) of 40 residues or longer. These proteins modulate key cellular functions such as transcription, translation, and signal transduction. Despite their vital roles, little is known about the properties of large disordered proteins due to the difficulties encountered studying them. Solution nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy is a unique tool allowing for their analysis but traditionally requires uniform protein labeling with 15N and 13C isotopesresulting in convoluted spectra which obscure any meaningful information on their structures and interactions. To remedy this issue, we aim at developing a procedure to segmentally label …

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Nickel Phosphide Photothermal Catalyst Development For Co2-Derived Solar Fuels, Hannah K. Hennig Jan 2022

Nickel Phosphide Photothermal Catalyst Development For Co2-Derived Solar Fuels, Hannah K. Hennig

WWU Graduate School Collection

Converting CO2 to CO via the photocatalyzed reverse water gas shift (RWGS) reaction satisfies a critical step in the production of C1 solar fuels (e.g., CH4, CH3OH) and longer hydrocarbons via the Fischer-Tropsch process. Oxide-supported nickel phosphides (NixPy) are an emerging class of photocatalysts with a number of accessible crystalline phases. Additionally, the broad-spectrum absorption of NixPy materials affords photo-induced local heating to drive catalytic processes at mild operating temperatures. In the current project, NixPy with different P/Ni molar ratios were investigated as RWGS catalysts on two types of support materials: 1) silica (SiO2) as a relatively inert support, and …

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Structural Characterization Of Factor Viii-Inhibitor Complexes And Factor Viii Lipid Binding Mechanics, Corbin Mitchell Jan 2022

Structural Characterization Of Factor Viii-Inhibitor Complexes And Factor Viii Lipid Binding Mechanics, Corbin Mitchell

WWU Graduate School Collection

Blood coagulation factor VIII (FVIII) is a crucial protein cofactor within the blood coagulation cascade and facilitates the proteolytic activation of factor X by activated factor IX. During coagulation FVIII is activated and binds, via its C1 and C2 domains, to activated platelet membranes coordinated by interactions with exposed phosphatidylserine on the membrane surface. A deficiency of functional FVIII within a patient's bloodstream leads to the blood disorder hemophilia A, which results in prolonged bleeding episodes. Current treatment for hemophilia A relies on FVIII replacement therapy via the injection of exogenous FVIII. The main complication which arises from FVIII replacement …

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Molybdenum Oxide/Antimony Nanobelts Embedded In Asymmetric Membranes For Use As High-Capacity Lithium/Sodium-Ion Battery Anodes, Logan Williams Jan 2022

Molybdenum Oxide/Antimony Nanobelts Embedded In Asymmetric Membranes For Use As High-Capacity Lithium/Sodium-Ion Battery Anodes, Logan Williams

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Lithium-ion batteries (LIB) are a key aspect of our daily lives, from smartphones to electric vehicles. Commercially available LIB use graphite anodes due to their reliability and safety. Graphite anodes present one key disadvantage: a relatively low theoretical capacity of 372 mAh g-1. It is of great importance that new research focuses on high-capacity anode materials to further our sustainability and usage of LIB. While increasing the performance of LIB is of great interest, developing alternative energy storage devices is gaining attention in academia and industry R&D. Sodium has become a topic of interest in recent years due to sodium’s …

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The Synthesis And Biocatalytic Reduction Of Beta-Keto Alkynes, Rhema M. Francis Jan 2022

The Synthesis And Biocatalytic Reduction Of Beta-Keto Alkynes, Rhema M. Francis

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The preparation of enantiopure homopropargyl alcohols (but-3-yn-ols) is of high importance to the scientific community. They are employed as valuable pharmaceutical intermediates and are opportune to generate antiviral nucleoside analogues. Chiral inducement of these molecules thus far has been poor (low ee) and has constituted a key challenge for asymmetric synthesis in the last few decades. Enzyme-catalyzed enantioselective reductions of ketones have become popular to produce thus-prepared synthons on an industrial scale. Among them, biocatalysts (dehydrogenases, reductases) emerge as a biodegradable option for chemical transformations, in comparison to chiral catalysts that employ highly toxic metals. This research investigates the catalytic …

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Investigation Of Intramolecular And Intermolecular Aza-Michael Reactions, Nadia Z. Singleton Jan 2022

Investigation Of Intramolecular And Intermolecular Aza-Michael Reactions, Nadia Z. Singleton

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The hydroamination of dimaleimides with diamines has been accomplished to access novel polymers. Various dimaleamides and dimaleimides were synthesized from commercially available diamines and maleic anhydride. The resulting dimaleamides were then ring-closed to their respective dimaleimides either directly in the presence of acid or via the synthesis of mixed amide-esters which then ring close in the presence of acid under heat. Hydroamination of the dimaleimides with piperazine was accomplished in bulk at room temperature. The reaction is spontaneous thus leading to the formation of polyimides with high functional group conversion within minutes. The kinetics of the maleamides and maleimides was …

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The Curious Case Of Concept: A Nation-Wide Survey Of Faculty Beliefs About Quantum Mechanics Concept Inventories Uncovers New Details Regarding Physical Chemistry Experts’ Understanding Of Conceptual Knowledge., Matt Smiley Jan 2022

The Curious Case Of Concept: A Nation-Wide Survey Of Faculty Beliefs About Quantum Mechanics Concept Inventories Uncovers New Details Regarding Physical Chemistry Experts’ Understanding Of Conceptual Knowledge., Matt Smiley

WWU Graduate School Collection

According to the chemistry education literature, physical chemistry educators strongly believe developing students’ conceptual understanding is important; however, the vast majority of educators (84%) were found to assess students predominantly on mathematical knowledge. To better serve students of physical chemistry, the cause of misalignment between stated learning goals and assessment needs to be elucidated. To this end, the Faculty Perceptions of Published Quantum Mechanics Assessments Survey (FPPQMA) was developed. The FPPQMA is designed to probe physical chemistry educators’ beliefs regarding the dichotomy between conceptual and mathematical knowledge. In addition to free response questions that ask respondents to define conceptual and …

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Synthesis Of Functionalized Aromatic Heterocyclic Compounds And Its Applications In Organized Self-Assemblies, Emmanuel T. Fasusi Jan 2022

Synthesis Of Functionalized Aromatic Heterocyclic Compounds And Its Applications In Organized Self-Assemblies, Emmanuel T. Fasusi

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

1,2,3-triazoles due to their structure, possess good optical properties and are capable of molecular recognition by their supramolecular capabilities of utilizing weak forces of interaction (such as hydrogen bonding, dipole interaction) in establishing a close association with targets. They are easy to synthesize, which opened the opportunity for a wide pharmaceutical application, mostly as pharmacological scaffolds. However, challenges such as poor water solubility, inefficient drug delivery and increased toxicities due to frequent dosing of drugs are commonly faced which reduces the efficacy of the drugs. It is therefore important to have “delivery vehicles” which could help transport the drugs to …

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The Effect Of Autophagy Related Protein 10 And Its Mutants On Autophagic Activity, Sk Nadia Rahman Silvia Jan 2022

The Effect Of Autophagy Related Protein 10 And Its Mutants On Autophagic Activity, Sk Nadia Rahman Silvia

Senior Honors Theses and Projects

Autophagy is the cellular degradation process in which cellular contents are encapsulated by double-membrane vesicles, autophagosomes, and delivered to the vacuole to be degraded and recycled. This process is important for cell health and homeostasis. There are approximately 32 different autophagy-related proteins involved. Atg10 is an enzyme that may affect overall autophagic activity by changing autophagosome size and/or number. Our goal is to find mutants that cause a significant, partial loss in Atg10’s activity by mutating some residues near the active site and testing the functionality of these mutants by performing western blots and enzymatic assays. Here we show that …

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Introducing An H113a Mutation Into Atg10 Y73q To Reduce Autophagic Activity And Understand The Effect Of Atg On Autophagosome Size And Number, Konrad L. Lautenschlager Jan 2022

Introducing An H113a Mutation Into Atg10 Y73q To Reduce Autophagic Activity And Understand The Effect Of Atg On Autophagosome Size And Number, Konrad L. Lautenschlager

Senior Honors Theses and Projects

Autophagy is an essential recycling process that occurs within eukaryotic cells, however, the individual functions of the current thirty-two known autophagic proteins are not yet entirely understood. At this time, it is known that the autophagic protein Atg7 works upstream of both Atg3 and Atg10. Atg3 is affected by Atg7 and allows for the attachment of Atg8 and the lipid PE which is part of the autophagosome membrane. The Atg10 pathway is also affected by Atg7 but attaches Atg12 to Atg5 which upregulates the function of Atg3 and ultimately Atg8 lipidation. These protein interactions are necessary for forming autophagosomes, large …

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Gas-Phase Acid-Base Properties And Conformations Of Oligopeptides Through Mass Spectrometry And Computational Studies, Yuntao Zhang Jan 2022

Gas-Phase Acid-Base Properties And Conformations Of Oligopeptides Through Mass Spectrometry And Computational Studies, Yuntao Zhang

University of the Pacific Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation presents a comprehensive study of the peptides of interest to deeper understand the gas-phase acid-base properties in relation to their conformations and chirality. In the first part of the study, two pairs of alanine (A)-based isomeric peptides consisting of a basic probe, lysine (Lys) or 2,3-diaminopropionic acid (Dap), were investigated to understand the nature of the enhanced basicity when the basic probe was moved from the N-terminus to the C-terminus. In the second part of the study, alanine-based peptides containing a cysteine (C) as the acidic probe were investigated to understand the chirality effects on the gas-phase acidity …

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Peripherally Restricted Opioid Conjugates And Its Use As Pharmacological Probes And Potential Therapeutics, Md Tariqul Haque Tuhin Jan 2022

Peripherally Restricted Opioid Conjugates And Its Use As Pharmacological Probes And Potential Therapeutics, Md Tariqul Haque Tuhin

University of the Pacific Theses and Dissertations

Opioid-induced constipation (OIC) is one of the major adverse effects of opioid analgesics used by millions of patients each year. While progress has been made, there remains a significant unmet medical need in the treatment of OIC. Major gaps remain in our understanding of the role of the gastrointestinal tract and central nervous system (CNS) in precipitating OIC. For the last four decades, numerous investigations to study the sites of action of opioid analgesics have utilized peripherally acting mu-opioid receptor antagonists (PAMORAs), which have been incorrectly believed to have limited penetration across the blood-brain barrier (BBB). Several preclinical and clinical …

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