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Dissertations (1934 -)

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Full-Text Articles in Physical Sciences and Mathematics

Toward Understanding The Origin Of Mass-Independent Fractionation In Sulfur Allotropes And In Ozone, Igor Gayday Apr 2021

Toward Understanding The Origin Of Mass-Independent Fractionation In Sulfur Allotropes And In Ozone, Igor Gayday

Dissertations (1934 -)

Mysterious isotope effects, found in atmospheric ozone, cannot be explained by the standard mass-dependent statistical model. Similar mass-dependent isotope effects were also uncovered in sulfur deposits older than 2 billion years. In an effort to pinpoint possible reasons of these isotope effects, we build a theoretical description of the recombination reactions in sulfur allotropes and in ozone. No potential energy surface exists for the sulfur allotropes, so electronic structure calculations are also required. Ab initio calculation of two dimensionally reduced (2D and 3D) models of the potential energy surface for the tetrasulfur molecule at CCSD(T)-F12 and MRCI levels of theory …


Design And Synthesis Of Selective Estrogen Receptor Agonists, Edward Edward Wetzel Apr 2021

Design And Synthesis Of Selective Estrogen Receptor Agonists, Edward Edward Wetzel

Dissertations (1934 -)

Estrogens are hormones that regulates many different physiological functions. A decline in estrogen leads to significant issues that decrease the quality of life. Past treatments of menopausal symptoms included the administration of estrogen. However, side effects such as an increased risk of breast cancer, made this an unattractive therapeutic option. When a new estrogen receptor (ERβ) was discovered, it provided new hope for hormone replacement therapy (HRT). ERβ was shown to inhibit tumor growth, whereas ERα regulates breast cancer proliferation in certain types of breast cancer. The therapeutic benefits of targeting ERβ are vast; herein we focus on the benefits …


Synthetic And Mechanistic Studies Of Ruthenium Catalyzed C-C, C-H And C-N Bond Activation Reactions, Nuwan Asanka Pannilawithana Apr 2021

Synthetic And Mechanistic Studies Of Ruthenium Catalyzed C-C, C-H And C-N Bond Activation Reactions, Nuwan Asanka Pannilawithana

Dissertations (1934 -)

Transition metal-catalyzed selective CH, CC and CN bond activation reactions represent a challenging and synthetically important field in organic chemistry. In particular, transition-metal catalytic unreactive bond activation protocols are applicable in various stereoselective and atom economical complex organic molecule synthesis. Recently, significant research efforts have been made for utilizing catalytic CH and CC bond cleavage methods in the further development of commercially valuable pharmaceuticals and agrochemicals. The well-defined cationic Ru–H complex was found to be an effective catalyst for mediating the coupling reaction of 1,2-disubstituted indoles with α,β-unsaturated aldehydes and ketones, in which the regioselective Cα–Cβ activation of the carbonyl …


Predictive Analysis On Knee X-Ray Image And Mosquito Spectral Data, Manzur Rahman Farazi Apr 2021

Predictive Analysis On Knee X-Ray Image And Mosquito Spectral Data, Manzur Rahman Farazi

Dissertations (1934 -)

The aims of this dissertation are to develop predictive algorithms for twopractical applications: classification of knee osteoarthritis (OA) based on knee x-ray image and age prediction of mosquitoes based on near infrared spectra (NIRS) data. For the OA classification problem, we develop an automated algorithm that reads the pixel-wise color intensities for x-ray images and performs an OA severity classification. Identification of the region of interest (ROI) is a primary step for successful automated classification process. We develop an efficient algorithm to detect ROI and from the detected ROI, we extracted width-based features using pixel intensity difference (PID). The PID …


Functional Singular Spectrum Analysis: Nonparametric Decomposition And Forecasting Approaches For Functional Time Series, Jordan Christopher Trinka Apr 2021

Functional Singular Spectrum Analysis: Nonparametric Decomposition And Forecasting Approaches For Functional Time Series, Jordan Christopher Trinka

Dissertations (1934 -)

In this dissertation, we develop nonparametric decomposition methods and the subsequent forecasting techniques for functional, time-dependent data known as functional time series (FTS). We use ideas from functional data analysis (FDA) and singular spectrum analysis (SSA) to introduce the nonparametric decomposition method known as functional SSA (FSSA) and its associated forecasting techniques. We also extend these developed methodologies into multivariate FSSA (MFSSA) over different dimensional domains and its subsequent forecasting routines so that we may perform nonparametric decomposition and prediction of multivariate FTS (MFTS). The FSSA algorithm may be viewed as a signal extraction technique and we find that the …


Scope And Mechanistic Studies Of Ruthenium Catalyzed C-N Bond Activation Reactions, Pandula Taepith Kirinde Arachchige Apr 2021

Scope And Mechanistic Studies Of Ruthenium Catalyzed C-N Bond Activation Reactions, Pandula Taepith Kirinde Arachchige

Dissertations (1934 -)

Primary aliphatic amines which are ubiquitous in natural products, traditionally considered as inert to substitution reactions. Recent studies clearly demonstrated that the aliphatic deaminative coupling chemistry can be used to make valuable scaffolds through C–N bond activation on transition metal complexes. The catalytic system generated in situ from the tetranuclear Ru–H complex with a catechol ligand (2-9/2-16) and independently synthesized ruthenium catecholate complex 2-11 was found to be effective for the direct deaminative coupling of primary amines. The catalytic system formed in-situ from the reaction of cationic Ru–H complex 2-10 with 3,4,5,6-tetrachloro-1,2-benzoquinone 2-12 was found to mediate a regioselective deaminative …


1. Dft-Guided Discovery Of Hybrid Catalysts For C-C Bond Formation; 2. Synthesis Of A Reported Pdi Inhibitor, Eric Greve Jul 2020

1. Dft-Guided Discovery Of Hybrid Catalysts For C-C Bond Formation; 2. Synthesis Of A Reported Pdi Inhibitor, Eric Greve

Dissertations (1934 -)

1. Dual amine/pi Lewis acid catalyst systems have been reported for intramolecular direct additions of aldehydes/ketones to unactivated alkynes and occasionally alkenes, but related intermolecular reactions are rare. We reasoned that bulky metal ligands and bulky amine catalysts could minimize catalyst poisoning and could facilitate certain examples of direct intermolecular additions of unactivated aldehydes/ketones to alkenes/alkynes. Density Functional Theory (DFT) ground state calculations on putative catalytic intermediates for alkyne versus organocatalyst complexation to the -acid, and also the key carbon-carbon bond formation were used to prioritize ligand/organocatalyst combinations. Our calculations suggested that PyBOX-Pt(II) catalysts for alkene/alkyne activation could be combined …


Hybrid Metal/Covalent Organic Frameworks For Solar Fuel Conversion, Sizhuo Yang Apr 2020

Hybrid Metal/Covalent Organic Frameworks For Solar Fuel Conversion, Sizhuo Yang

Dissertations (1934 -)

Due to the harsh environment issues such as air pollution and global warming and global energy crisis raised by using fossil fuels, it is urgent to find an alternative sustainable energy source. How to utilize solar energy-the most clean and abundant energy source on earth is challenging. Convert solar energy to clean fuel energy like H2 or hydrocarbons is ideal energy conversion strategy. Thus, design new materials for hydrogen generation or CO2 reduction have attract researcher’s attention.The present study focuses on two types of materials of interest, the first of which is Metal Organic Frameworks (MOFs), including enhancing the …


Machine Learning And Data Mining-Based Methods To Estimate Parity Status And Age Of Wild Mosquito Vectors Of Infectious Diseases From Near-Infrared Spectra, Masabho Peter Milali Apr 2020

Machine Learning And Data Mining-Based Methods To Estimate Parity Status And Age Of Wild Mosquito Vectors Of Infectious Diseases From Near-Infrared Spectra, Masabho Peter Milali

Dissertations (1934 -)

Previous studies show that a trained partial least square regresser [sic] (PLSR) from near-infrared spectra classify laboratory and semi-field raised mosquitoes into less than or ≥ to seven days old with an average accuracy of 80%. This dissertation demonstrates that training models on near-infrared spectra (NIRS) using artificial neural network (ANN) as an architecture yields models with higher accuracies than training models using partial least squares (PLS) as an architecture. In addition, irrespective of the model architecture used, direct training of a binary classifier scores higher accuracy than training a regresser and interpreting it as a binary classifier. Furthermore, for …


Dependable And Scalable Public Ledger For Policy Compliance, A Blockchain Based Approach, Zhou Wu Apr 2020

Dependable And Scalable Public Ledger For Policy Compliance, A Blockchain Based Approach, Zhou Wu

Dissertations (1934 -)

Policies and regulations, such as the European Union General Data Protection Regulation (EU GDPR), have been enforced to protect personal data from abuse during storage and processing. We design and implement a prototype scheme that could 1) provide a public ledger of policy compliance to help the public make informative decisions when choosing data services; 2) provide support to the organizations for identifying violations and improve their ability of compliance. Honest organizations could then benefit from their positive records on the public ledger. To address the scalability problem inherent in the Blockchain-based systems, we develop algorithms and leverage state channels …


Theoretical And Experimental Investigation Of Non-Covalent Interactions In S-Nitrosothiols And Thio-Carboxylic Acids, Niloufar Hendinejad Apr 2020

Theoretical And Experimental Investigation Of Non-Covalent Interactions In S-Nitrosothiols And Thio-Carboxylic Acids, Niloufar Hendinejad

Dissertations (1934 -)

S-Nitrosothiols (RSNOs) are ubiquitous biomolecules whose chemistry is tightly controlled in unknown. In this work, we demonstrate, using high-level ab initio and DFT calculations, the ability of RSNOs to participate in intermolecular interactions with electron pair donors/Lewis bases (LBs) via a σ-hole, a region of positive electrostatic potential on the molecular surface at the extension of the N–S bond. Analysis of the nature of the intermolecular interactions in σ-hole bound RSNO-LB complexes shows the dominant role of electrostatic and dispersion interactions. Importantly, σ-hole binding is able to modulate the properties of RSNOs by changing the balance between two chemically opposite …


Hybrid Catalysis For The Direct Addition Of Unactivated Aldehydes And Ketones To Alkenes And Alkynes, Jacob Porter Oct 2019

Hybrid Catalysis For The Direct Addition Of Unactivated Aldehydes And Ketones To Alkenes And Alkynes, Jacob Porter

Dissertations (1934 -)

Reactions for the alpha functionalization of carbonyl compounds are important for the synthesis of complex organic materials such as pharmaceuticals, agrochemicals, and natural products. Current methodology used to perform these reactions is inefficient in that pre-activated coupling partners or sensitive catalysts are usually required. Described herein is the study and development of bifunctional and dual catalytic systems for carbon-carbon bond formation via the direct addition of unactivated carbonyl compounds to unactivated alkenes/alkynes. A dual catalyst system is one which utilizes two distinct catalysts to simultaneously activate separate reactants, and in a bifunctional catalyst the two catalytic components are present separately …


The Alpha-Activator Complex, Cellular Maturation, And Catalytic Mechanism Of Iron-Type Nitrile Hydratase, Wasantha Lankathilaka Karunagala Pathiranage Jul 2019

The Alpha-Activator Complex, Cellular Maturation, And Catalytic Mechanism Of Iron-Type Nitrile Hydratase, Wasantha Lankathilaka Karunagala Pathiranage

Dissertations (1934 -)

In industry, chemicals are typically synthesized through catalytically accelerated chemical processes. The use of biocatalysts is an increasingly important trend in achieving environmentally friendly chemical production processes. Nitrile Hydratases (NHases) are well-known biocatalysts that are used by several manufacturers such as Mitsubishi Rayon Corporation and Lonza for the conversion of acrylonitrile to acrylamide and 3-cyanopyridine to nicotinamide, respectively. Amides, in general, are used in polymer preparation, adhesive manufacturing, and the paper industry. Refrigeration is needed in the enzymatic hydration process on the industrial scale to maintain a low reaction temperature to stabilize the NHase enzyme. The use of whole cells …


Structure And Mechanisms Of Metalloenzymes For Incorporation Of Water Across Cn And C-Cl Bonds, Xinhang Yang Jul 2019

Structure And Mechanisms Of Metalloenzymes For Incorporation Of Water Across Cn And C-Cl Bonds, Xinhang Yang

Dissertations (1934 -)

Metalloenzymes are widely involved in water incorporation across CN and C-Cl bonds.1 In this research, the structure and mechanisms of two novel metalloenzymes that incorporate water across CN and C-Cl bonds were examined by biophysical approaches, computational modeling, and crystallographic methods.In the research of water incorporation across CN bonds, a novel eukaryotic nitrile hydratase (NHase, EC 4.2.1.84) from Monosiga brevicollis (MbNHase) was characterized, and the functional role of a (His)17 section and an insert region in the MbNHase, were examined by gene modifications. Each of these MbNHase enzymes provided an 22 heterotetramer, identical to that observed for prokaryotic NHases …


Investigation Of The Active Site Maturation And Catalytic Mechanism Of Nitrile Hydratases (Nhase, E.C.4.2.1.84), Irene Anyango Ogutu Jul 2019

Investigation Of The Active Site Maturation And Catalytic Mechanism Of Nitrile Hydratases (Nhase, E.C.4.2.1.84), Irene Anyango Ogutu

Dissertations (1934 -)

Nitrile hydratase (NHase, E.C.4.2.1.84) is a metalloenzyme that catalyzes the hydration of nitriles into their corresponding amide under ambient conditions. NHase enzymes contain either a non-heme Fe3+ ion or a non-corrin Co3+ ion in their active site. NHase enzymes have industrial applications as biocatalysts in the large-scale production of acrylamide and nicotinamide, though it’s catalytic and biochemical properties are not fully understood. This research project provides insight into the active site maturation process and catalytic mechanism of NHase using peptide model complexes, site-directed mutagenesis and synthesis of deuterated proteins.Insight into the sequential maturation of the NHase active site has been …


Design And Synthesis Of Simplified Analogs Of The Natural Product Sordarin As Potential Antifungal Agents, Yibiao Wu Apr 2019

Design And Synthesis Of Simplified Analogs Of The Natural Product Sordarin As Potential Antifungal Agents, Yibiao Wu

Dissertations (1934 -)

Invasive fungal infection is a life-threatening illness that causes high mortality, and is especially common among patients with compromised immune systems. However, currently there are only three major classes of clinically useful drugs capable of treating such infections. In addition, due to the fact that drug resistance has become a serious issue especially among patients who suffer from chronic infections, it is urgent to identify new drug candidates, particular those of new classes. The discovery of the natural product sordarin and its novel mechanism of action of inhibiting fungal protein synthesis via the fungal eukaryotic elongation factor 2 (eEF2) led …


Bifurcation In Weighted Digraphs And Their Applications In Ecology, Kehinde Irabor Apr 2019

Bifurcation In Weighted Digraphs And Their Applications In Ecology, Kehinde Irabor

Dissertations (1934 -)

Merrill (2010) described bifurcation in a Markov chain by examining the eigenvalues of the associated probability matrix. The bifurcation point is that point where the dynamics of the system’s structure changes. He recognized a change in the dynamics of a sample path in a Markov chain when the nature of its eigenvalues changes. We built upon this work and found that not all changes in Markov chain dynamics are accompanied by change in the nature of the eigenvalues. And we introduce other measures that will recognize a change in dynamics. This was applied to solve the problem of evaluating the …


Evaluating Electrode-Tissue Contact Force Using The Moving Pattern Of The Catheter Tip And The Electrogram Characteristics, Xuyong Yu Apr 2019

Evaluating Electrode-Tissue Contact Force Using The Moving Pattern Of The Catheter Tip And The Electrogram Characteristics, Xuyong Yu

Dissertations (1934 -)

As an important reference for the physician during catheter ablation, the electrode-tissue contact force (CF), is one of the key points for the success of the catheter ablation. With the guide of CF sensing, the ablation procedure can be safer and more effective. Techniques and apparatus have been refined since catheter ablation was invented to treat cardiac arrhythmia. In the review part, different techniques for evaluating the electrode-tissue CF are discussed, including both direct and indirect measurement. Sensor-based direct measurement is broadly applied but restricted by the high cost. Surrogate markers of catheter-tissue contact such as impedance, electrogram (EGM) quality, …


Best (Biomarker Estimation): Health Biomarker Estimation Non-Invasively And Ubiquitously, Md Kamrul Hasan Apr 2019

Best (Biomarker Estimation): Health Biomarker Estimation Non-Invasively And Ubiquitously, Md Kamrul Hasan

Dissertations (1934 -)

This dissertation focuses on the non-invasive assessment of blood-hemoglobin levels. The primary goal of this research is to investigate a reliable, affordable, and user-friendly point-of-care solution for hemoglobin-level determination using fingertip videos captured by a smartphone. I evaluated videos obtained from five patient groups, three from the United States and two from Bangladesh, under two sets of lighting conditions. In the last group, based on human tissue optical transmission modeling data, I used near-infrared light-emitting diode sources of three wavelengths. I developed novel image processing techniques for fingertip video analysis to estimate hemoglobin levels. I studied video images creating image …


Developing Accessible Collection And Presentation Methods For Observational Data, Drew Marie Williams Oct 2018

Developing Accessible Collection And Presentation Methods For Observational Data, Drew Marie Williams

Dissertations (1934 -)

The processes of collecting, cleaning, and presenting data are critical in ensuring the proper analysis of data at a later date. An opportunity exists to enhance the data collection and presentation process for those who are not data scientists – such as healthcare professionals and businesspeople interested in using data to help them make decisions. In this work, creating an observational data collection and presentation tool is investigated, with a focus on developing a tool prioritizing user-friendliness and context preservation of the data collected. This aim is achieved via the integration of three approaches to data collection and presentation.In …


Design, Synthesis And Study Of Redox And Optoelectronic Properties Of Aromatic Oxidants And Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons, Mohammad Mosharraf Hossain Jul 2018

Design, Synthesis And Study Of Redox And Optoelectronic Properties Of Aromatic Oxidants And Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons, Mohammad Mosharraf Hossain

Dissertations (1934 -)

Organic materials play a significant role for the next generation photovoltaic devices that convert solar energy into usable forms of energy. In this regard, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are fundamental tools in the developing area of molecular electronics and photovoltaics as they show excellent optical/electronic properties and are well-suited for applications in such developing areas as flexible display devices, field effect transistors and solar cell panels. Design and synthesis of novel materials for photovoltaics applications would require the proper understanding the mechanism of charge transport and identification of the structural features necessary in a particular molecular wire or PAH. To …


The Photodynamic And Structural Analyses Of Advanced Materials For Solar Fuel Conversion, Brian Pattengale Jul 2018

The Photodynamic And Structural Analyses Of Advanced Materials For Solar Fuel Conversion, Brian Pattengale

Dissertations (1934 -)

Mitigating the current and future climate and pollution issues that have been brought on by the combustion of fossil fuels is of utmost importance and will rely on, in part, the availability of renewable fuel sources. Of the possible sources of energy, solar is abundant, but must be harnessed efficiently and stored as a solar fuel to overcome the current storage issues that limit photovoltaic cells. One such fuel, H2(g), represents a carbon-neutral source of energy if it can be efficiently liberated from water via the water splitting reaction. Thus, much attention is focused on designing materials to perform the …


Inference And Analysis Of Multilayered Mirna-Mediated Networks In Cancer, Duc Do Jul 2018

Inference And Analysis Of Multilayered Mirna-Mediated Networks In Cancer, Duc Do

Dissertations (1934 -)

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are small noncoding transcripts that can regulate gene expression, thereby controlling diverse biological processes. Aberrant disruptions of miRNA expression and their interactions with other biological agents (e.g., coding and noncoding transcripts) have been associated with several types of cancer. The goal of this dissertation is to use multidimensional genomic data to model two different gene regulation mechanisms by miRNAs in cancer. This dissertation results from two research projects. The first project investigates a miRNA-mediated gene regulation mechanism called competing endogenous RNA (ceRNA) interactions, which suggests that some transcripts can indirectly regulate one another's activity through their interactions with …


Photochemical Expulsion Of Leaving Groups From A Naphthothiophene-2-Carboxamide Linked To A Chromophore, Lingzi Li Jul 2018

Photochemical Expulsion Of Leaving Groups From A Naphthothiophene-2-Carboxamide Linked To A Chromophore, Lingzi Li

Dissertations (1934 -)

Two bichromophoric systems were synthesized which have thioxanthone as the chromophore that absorbs the incident light and a naphthothiophene-2-carboxanilide, which serves as a triplet excited state energy acceptor. Upon excitation the triplet excited state of the thioxanthone is populated via intersystem crossing, which is efficient with isc = 0.68. Based on the relative energies of the triplet excited states of thioxanthone (ET = 65 kcal mol-1) and naphthothiophene (ET = 51 kcal mol-1), the subsequent triplet excited state energy transfer to generate the triplet excited state of the naphthothiophene-2-carboxamide should be a very rapid process that is 14 kcal mol1 …


Synthesis And Characterization Of Biomimetic Models Of Mononuclear Nonheme Iron Dioxygenases And Their Reactive Intermediates, Anne Alyse Fischer Apr 2018

Synthesis And Characterization Of Biomimetic Models Of Mononuclear Nonheme Iron Dioxygenases And Their Reactive Intermediates, Anne Alyse Fischer

Dissertations (1934 -)

Mononuclear non-heme iron dioxygenases (MNIDs) are a class of enzymes that catalyze a variety of reactions, from amino acid catabolism to bioremediation using molecular oxygen. This work focuses on three types of MNIDs: thiol dioxygenaes (TDOs), aminophenoldioxygenases (APDOs), and sulfoxide synthases (SOSs). TDOs, found in mammals, regulate the levels of cysteine along with other thiol-containing molecules, using molecular oxygen to convert them into their corresponding sulfinic acids. APDOs catalyze the oxidative ring cleavage in the biodegradation of nitroaromatics. SOSs are involved in the biosynthesis of large biologically relevant molecules in humans. Although this class of enzymes has gained more attention …


Compressed Sensing For Few-View Multi-Pinhole Spect With Applications To Preclinical Imaging, Benjamin Michael Rizzo Apr 2018

Compressed Sensing For Few-View Multi-Pinhole Spect With Applications To Preclinical Imaging, Benjamin Michael Rizzo

Dissertations (1934 -)

Single Photon Emission Computed Tomography (SPECT) can be used to identify and quantify changes in molecular and cellular targets involved in disease. A radiopharmaceutical that targets a specific metabolic function is administered to a subject and planar projections are formed by imaging emissions at different view angles around the subject. The reconstruction task is to determine the distribution of radioactivity within the subject from the projections. We present a reconstruction approach that utilizes only a few view angles, resulting in a highly underdetermined system, which could be used for dynamic imaging applications designed to quantify physiologic processes altered with disease. …


Photoremovable Protecting Groups Based On Electrocyclization With Leaving Group Expulsion Via A Proposed Zwitterion, Gilbert Ndzeidze Apr 2018

Photoremovable Protecting Groups Based On Electrocyclization With Leaving Group Expulsion Via A Proposed Zwitterion, Gilbert Ndzeidze

Dissertations (1934 -)

The triplet excited state of thioxanthone produced by photolysis undergoes reversible triplet energy transfer with a trimethylene - linked benzothiophene-2-carboxanilide ring system. The ensuing electrocyclic ring closure of the anilide moiety produces a putative zwitterionic intermediate that is capable of expelling leaving groups (LG-) from the C-3 position of the benzothiophene ring. Stern-Volmer quenching studies with cyclohexadiene as quencher furnish the rate constants for the triplet excitation transfer in the forward and reverse directions, which can be expressed as an equilibrium constant K = 0.058. Overall, the rate of triplet excited state reaction becomes K x kr = 5.7 x …


Feature Space Augmentation: Improving Prediction Accuracy Of Classical Problems In Cognitive Science And Computer Vison, Piyush Saxena Oct 2017

Feature Space Augmentation: Improving Prediction Accuracy Of Classical Problems In Cognitive Science And Computer Vison, Piyush Saxena

Dissertations (1934 -)

The prediction accuracy in many classical problems across multiple domains has seen a rise since computational tools such as multi-layer neural nets and complex machine learning algorithms have become widely accessible to the research community. In this research, we take a step back and examine the feature space in two problems from very different domains. We show that novel augmentation to the feature space yields higher performance. Emotion Recognition in Adults from a Control Group: The objective is to quantify the emotional state of an individual at any time using data collected by wearable sensors. We define emotional state as …


Spectral Characterization Of Cytochromes P450 Active Sites Using Nmr And Resonance Raman Spectroscopy, Remigio Usai Oct 2017

Spectral Characterization Of Cytochromes P450 Active Sites Using Nmr And Resonance Raman Spectroscopy, Remigio Usai

Dissertations (1934 -)

The Cytochrome P450 (P450s) has been the subject of intense research for over six decades. An efficient approach for isotopic labeling of the prosthetic group in heme proteins was exploited to produce an analogue of the soluble bacterial cytochrome P450cam (P450cam) that contains a 13C labeled-protoheme prosthetic group. HU227 strain of E. coli, which lacks the δ-aminolevulinic acid (δ-ALA) synthase gene, was employed in the heterologous expression of P450cam harboring a prosthetic group labeled with 13C at the Cm and Cα positions by growing cells in the presence of [5-13C] δ-ALA, which was synthesized in four steps from [2-13C] glycine. …


Computational Strategies In Uncertainty Quantification For Hazard Mapping, Regis Rutarindwa Oct 2017

Computational Strategies In Uncertainty Quantification For Hazard Mapping, Regis Rutarindwa

Dissertations (1934 -)

There are many hazards associated with volcanic activities. Amongst them are Pyroclastic flows; a mixture of rock fragments, debris and hot gases that flow down the slope of actives volcanoes at high velocities. These flows have proven to be devastating, and at the same time more than 500 millions people in the world live within potential exposure to such a hazard. A few approaches have been used to try to mitigate the impact of volcanic hazard in general. These include remote sensing technology and developing hazard maps – a graphic representation of safe and risky zones for a given volcanic …