Chemistry Commons^™

Photoremediation Of Organic Compounds With Fullerene (C60) Modified Tio2 Nanoparticles, Raymond Patey

Theses and Dissertations

Historically the populations of many developing countries have been subjected to potable water shortages through drought and those of developed nations from pollution because of industrialization. Recently parts of our own country were in dire straits when it comes to the availability of clean drinking water due to severe drought. Existing inert processes involving activated carbon and titanium dioxide (TiO2) coated particles and membranes have shown to be effective at water purification. However, processes such as these typically require expensive infrastructure and filtration systems and consequently are not expected to be found in developing countries, where clean water is severely …

Arsenoplatins Vs. Combination Of Platinum Drugs And Arsenic Trioxide, Denana Miodragovic

Faculty Research and Creative Activities Symposium

No abstract provided.

Structural Characterization Of Bacterial Red Light Photoreceptors By Atomic Force Microscopy, Kenneth T. Nicholson

Faculty Research and Creative Activities Symposium

No abstract provided.

Molecular Origami For Biochemistry: Paper Models Of Proteins, Carbohydrates, And Nucleic Acids, Charles Abrams

Faculty Research and Creative Activities Symposium

No abstract provided.

Proceedings Of The First Annual Symposium On The Wright State Woods, College Of Science And Mathematics, College Of Liberal Arts

1st Annual Wright State Woods Symposium

The proceeding of the Woods Symposium held at Wright State University and sponsored by the College of Science and Mathematics and the College of Liberal Arts.

Application Of Glycosyl Imidates And Nitrates In Carbohydrate Synthesis, Tinghua Wang

Dissertations

Carbohydrates are the most abundant molecules among the four essential classes of biomolecules that also include nucleic acids, lipids and proteins. Unlike proteins and nucleic acids, which follow template-driven synthetic pathways, there is no general route to the synthesis of carbohydrates. The stereoselectivity of the formation of O-glycosidic linkages and the regioselectivity of protection and deprotection of specific hydroxyl groups over others represent two of the major challenges in carbohydrate chemistry. This thesis is dedicated to the development of novel strategies for efficient synthesis of carbohydrate building blocks and stereocontrolled glycosylations for step-economy oligosaccharide synthesis. Novel glycosyl donors with difluoro-3H-indol-2-yl …

Early Detection Of Corrosion Via Hydrogel-Based Spectroelectrochemical Sensors, Capri Ann Price

Dissertations and Theses

The backbone of the industrialized world is comprised of refined, zerovalent metal, a material which thermodynamically favors an oxidative return to more chemically stable states. There are many methods used to slow or delay this process, such as protective coatings, sacrificial anodes, and alloys, but no method can entirely prevent corrosion. This body of work instead proposes detecting the earliest chemical markers of corrosion: that is, metal ions as they solubilize from a metal surface. Such information would allow maintenance personnel to make informed decisions about the necessity or lack thereof of preventive maintenance, and intervene before advanced damage has …

Sorbent Enrichment Performance Of Aromatic Compounds From Diluted Liquid Solution, Le Meng

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Sorbent enrichment is treated as the extend sample preparing method from liquid extraction. The theories of liquid extraction also extend to sorbent enrichment, which is based on the distribution equilibrium. With the development of advanced materials, sorbents have been improved dramatically in the past twenty years. Nowadays, more and more enrichment performance cannot be explained from the angle of distribution model.

Herein, the sorption model is emphasized in this study. As the majority exist, aromatic compounds are the focused class of analytes. This study analyzed the sorption from two factors, the interaction between adsorbate and sorbent from their aromaticity, and …

Elevated Calcium Levels In Kentucky Lake: A Possible Emerging Problem With An Invasive Species, Adam T. Martin

Posters-at-the-Capitol

Zebra mussels (Dreissena polymorpha) are an exotic and invasive mollusk that have spread extensively through various rivers and lakes in the United States. These mussels are notorious for their “biofouling” capabilities costing billions of dollars in their removal from industrial, public, and power plant water supply lines. While having been present in the Tennessee River drainage with occasional small reproducing populations since the early 1990s, zebra mussels were never abundant or widespread. In 2017, high densities were found on structures and solid substrates throughout the lower portion of Kentucky Lake. Calcium is one of the essential elements that contributes …

Proteolysis Of Methylated Sox2 Protein Is Regulated By L3mbtl3 And Crl4Dcaf5 Ubiquitin Ligase, Chunxiao Zhang, Feng Leng, Lovely Saxena, Nam Hoang, Jiekai Yu, Salvador Alejo, Logan Lee, Dandan Qi, Fei Lu, Hong Sun, Hui Zhang

Chemistry and Biochemistry Faculty Research

SOX2 is a dose-dependent master stem cell protein that controls the self-renewal and pluripotency or multipotency of embryonic stem (ES) cells and many adult stem cells. We have previously found that SOX2 protein is monomethylated at lysine residues 42 and 117 by SET7 methyltransferase to promote SOX2 proteolysis, whereas LSD1 and PHF20L1 act on both methylated Lys-42 and Lys-117 to prevent SOX2 proteolysis. However, the mechanism by which the methylated SOX2 protein is degraded remains unclear. Here, we report that L3MBTL3, a protein with the malignant-brain-tumor (MBT) methylation–binding domain, is required for SOX2 proteolysis. Our studies showed that L3MBTL3 preferentially …

Development Of Copper-Catalyzed Suzuki-Miyaura Coupling Using Alkylboron Reagents And Nickel-Catalyzed Alkene Dicarbofunctionalization Reactions, Prakash Basnet

Chemistry and Chemical Biology ETDs

This thesis is divided into two parts. The first part deals with the development of copper-catalyzed Suzuki-Miyaura coupling of alkylboron reagents for the first time. In the second part, we will discuss the development of novel nickel-catalyzed alkene dicarbofunctionalization reactions.

Part I. Cross-coupling reactions are versatile tools to form new carbon-carbon bonds and are widely used in the synthesis of various drug molecules, natural products and materials. However, these reactions are typically catalyzed by palladium, an expensive and rare metal which makes the reaction unsustainable in long-terms. Additionally, palladium-catalyzed cross-coupling reactions with alkylorganometallic reagents suffer from side reactions due to …

Reactive Pathways In The Bromobenzene-Ammonia Dimer Cation Radical: Evidence For A Roaming Halogen Radical, Silver Nyambo, Brandon Uhler, Lloyd Godfrey Muzangwa, Maxim Vadimovich Ivanov, Bradley K. Welch, Richard Dawes, Scott A. Reid

Chemistry Faculty Research and Publications

Photoinitiated reactions in van der Waals complexes provide a means to examine reactive pathways from well-defined initial geometries. In recent work, we re-examined reactive pathways following resonant two-photon ionization (R2PI) of the chlorobenzene-ammonia (PhCl⋯NH₃) dimer. The dimer cation radical reacts primarily via Cl atom loss, and additional channels corresponding to HCl and H atom loss were identified. The structure of the reactive complex was confirmed as an in-plane σ-type, and computational studies of the dimer cation radical potential energy landscape revealed two nearly isoenergetic arenium ion intermediates (or Wheland intermediates). The intermediate produced from ipso addition was not …

Consumption Profiles Of Illicit And Neuropsychiatric Drugs In Urban And Rural Communities In Kentucky Using Sewage Epidemiology, Tara Croft, Katelyn Foppe, Rhiannon Huffines, Bikram Subedi

Posters-at-the-Capitol

The drug overdose deaths in the USA increased by ~20% from 2015 to 2016 to the total >63,600 drug overdose deaths in 2016. Kentucky is among the highest rate of drug overdose death states in the USA. The current estimates of the prevalence of substance abuse are based on the self-reported surveys, overdose/toxicological reports, and drug-related crime statistics. Survey-based conventional approaches are not only cost and time-intensive but also underestimate the actual consumption of drugs. As “wastewater never lie,” the drug residues in raw wastewater collected from the centralized wastewater treatment plants were utilized to determine the consumption rate of …

Development Of Functional Chemical Probes For The Study Of Viscosity, Fe(Ii), And Ferroptosis And Photo-Triggered Drug Delivery, Yongyi Wei

Chemistry and Chemical Biology ETDs

Small molecule probes are useful tools for the study of biology. In particular, the dye derived fluorescence probes enable to spatiotemporally monitor the events of analytes of interest. The noninvasive feature is particularly attractive for the biological studies in live cells. The challenge is to develop chemical probes capable of detection of the analyte of interest with high specificity.

Toward this end, my Ph. D. study centers on the development of novel chemical probes for the study and understanding of the alternation of important cellar contents and substances and their functions and relationship between normal and disease states. In the …

Crystallographic And Computational Characterization Of Methyl Tetrel Bonding In S-Adenosylmethionine-Dependent Methyltransferases, Raymond C. Trievel, Steve Scheiner

Chemistry and Biochemistry Faculty Publications

Tetrel bonds represent a category of non-bonding interaction wherein an electronegative atom donates a lone pair of electrons into the sigma antibonding orbital of an atom in the carbon group of the periodic table. Prior computational studies have implicated tetrel bonding in the stabilization of a preliminary state that precedes the transition state in S_N2 reactions, including methyl transfer. Notably, the angles between the tetrel bond donor and acceptor atoms coincide with the prerequisite geometry for the S_N2 reaction. Prompted by these findings, we surveyed crystal structures of methyltransferases in the Protein Data Bank and discovered …

Micro-Flow Nanocatalysis: Synergic Effect Of Tfoh@Spions And Micro-Flow Technology As An Efficient And Robust Catalytic System For The Synthesis Of Plasticizers, Maryam Tashi, Behnaz Shafiee, Yoshie Sakamaki, Ji-Yun Hu, Zachary Heidrick, Ahmad R. Khosropour, M. Hassan Beyzavi

Chemistry & Biochemistry Faculty Publications and Presentations

The combination of continuous flow technology with immobilizing of only 0.13 mol% of triflic acid (TfOH) on silica-encapsulated superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles (SPIONs) under solvent-free conditions successfully provided a powerful, efficient, and eco-friendly route for the synthesis of plasticizers. The turnover frequency value in micro-flow conditions varied in the range of 948.7 to 7384.6 h−1 compared to 403.8 to 3099 h−1 for in-flask. This technique works efficiently, encouraging future applications of micro-flow nano-catalysis in green chemistry.

Spatial Variation In Throughfall, Soil, And Plant Water Isotopes In A Temperate Forest, Gregory R. Goldsmith, Scott T. Allen, Sabine Braun, Nadine Engbersen, Clara Romero González-Quijano, James W. Kirchner, Rolf T. W. Siegwolf

Biology, Chemistry, and Environmental Sciences Faculty Articles and Research

Studies of stable isotopes of water in the environment have been fundamental to advancing our understanding of how water moves through the soil‐plant‐atmosphere continuum; however, much of this research focuses on how water isotopes vary in time, rather than in space. We examined the spatial variation in the δ¹⁸O and δ²H of throughfall and bulk soil water, as well as branch xylem and bulk leaf water of Picea abies (Norway Spruce) and Fagus sylvatica (Beech), in a 1 ha forest plot in the northern Alps of Switzerland. Means and ranges of water isotope ratios varied considerably …

Structure-Based Design, Synthesis And Applications Of A New Class Of Peptidomimetics: 'Y-Aa Peptides And Their Derivatives, Ma Su

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Peptidomimetics can mimic hierarchical structures of peptides and proteins. Thus, they are extensively studied for therapeutic applications. To break the limitation of backbones and frameworks and expand the peptidomimetics family, a new class of peptidomimetics - “γ-AApeptides” was developed. Design of γ-AApeptides is based on the chiral peptide nucleic acids (PNAs) backbone.

The World Health Organization estimates that one -third of all deaths in the world are on account of infectious diseases. AMPs are important because of their high activity against broad spectrum microbes, less susceptible to grow resistance and selectivity in binding to bacterial cells over human cells. γ-AApeptides …

The Legendre Transformation For Beginning Thermodynamics Students, Carl W. David

Chemistry Education Materials

The Legendre Transform, as traditionally taught in introductory Physical Chemistry classes, can be better understood with some simple examples, which are discussed herein.

Synthesis And Evaluation Of Troponoids As A New Class Of Antibiotics, Feng Cao, Cari Orth, Maureen J. Donlin, Patrick Adegboyega, Marvin J. Meyers, Ryan P. Murelli, Mohamed Elagawany, Bahaa Elgendy, John E. Tavis

Publications and Research

Novel antibiotics are urgently needed. The troponoids [tropones, tropolones, and α-hydroxytropolones (α-HT)] can have anti-bacterial activity. We synthesized or purchased 92 troponoids and evaluated their antibacterial activities against Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli, Acinetobacter baumannii, and Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Preliminary hits were assessed for minimum inhibitory concentrations (MIC80) and cytotoxicity (CC50) against human hepatoma cells. Sixteen troponoids inhibited S. aureus/E. coli/ A. baumannii growth by ≥80% growth at <30 >μM with CC50 values >50 μM. Two selected tropolones (63 and 285) inhibited 18 methicillin-resistant S. aureus (MRSA) strains with similar MIC80 values as against a reference strain. Two selected thiotropolones (284 and 363) …

Are The Oxygen Isotope Values Of The Late Cretaceous Western Interior Seaway Different From The Open Ocean?, Camille H. Dwyer, Corinne Myers, Viorel Atudorei

Shared Knowledge Conference

The Western Interior Seaway (WIS) was a North American epicontinental sea that was connected to the open ocean through the passage of the northern Boreal Sea and the southern Tethys Sea from the early Albian (~113 million years ago) to the early Paleogene (~65 million years ago). The WIS began to recced and lost its connection to the southern Tethys Sea in the late Campanian (~72 million years ago). In the early Paleogene, the WIS dried up completely. The oxygen isotopic composition (δ18O) of benthic bivalves was measured from the upper Campanian and lower Maastrichtian (75 million years ago to …

Catalytic Deoxygenation Of Model And Realistic Feeds To Fuel-Like Hydrocarbons Over Supported Nickel-Copper Catalysts, Deyshon Ward, Kazi Javed

Posters-at-the-Capitol

The goal was to make a renewable fuel by using catalysts to remove oxygen molecules from fats. This is a current issue that society faces today because nonrenewable fossil fuels hurt the environment more than they help it. There are two components that make up a heterogeneous catalyst, a support and a reduced metal active phase. The active metal phases Nickel, Palladium, Platinum have been studied in the past on an alumina and carbon supports. We were investigating other supports using Nickel as the active phase component to determine the effect the support has on the catalyst removing oxygen of …

An In Vitro Study On Skin Protection Across The Uv Spectra, Cheyenne Boone

Posters-at-the-Capitol

Skin cancer is the number one cancer in the United States. Lack of awareness of how harmful UV radiation is could be the cause of the over two million cases reported since 2012. It appears that there is not a lot information on the active ingredients used in sunscreens. Some of the compounds have been linked to birth defects, hormone disruptions, and the bleaching of coral reefs. Samples of commonly used sunscreens (both sprays and creams), cosmetic foundation, essential oils, lotions, and three pure organic actives were tested at specific concentrations and ran through a UV spectrometer. The results have …

Evidence For A Partially Stalled Γ Rotor In F, Angela Murcia Rios, Siavash Vahidi, Stanley D Dunn, Lars Konermann

Chemistry Publications

F₁-ATPase uses ATP hydrolysis to drive rotation of the γ subunit. The γ C-terminal helix constitutes the rotor tip that is seated in an apical bearing formed by α₃β₃. It remains uncertain to what extent the γ conformation during rotation differs from that seen in rigid crystal structures. Existing models assume that the entire γ subunit participates in every rotation. Here we interrogated E. coli F₁-ATPase by hydrogen-deuterium exchange (HDX) mass spectrometry. Rotation of γ caused greatly enhanced deuteration in the γ C-terminal helix. The HDX kinetics implied that most F_{1 …}

Enzyme Kinetics From Circular Dichroism Of Insulin Reveals Mechanistic Insights Into The Regulation Of Insulin-Degrading Enzyme, Valerie A. Ivancic, Claire A. Krasinski, Qiuchen Zheng, Rebecca J. Meservier, Donald E. Spratt, Noel D. Lazo

Chemistry

Insulin-degrading enzyme (IDE) is a zinc metalloprotease that selectively degrades biologically important substrates associated with type 2 diabetes and Alzheimer's disease (AD). As such, IDE is an attractive target for therapeutic innovations. Amajor requirement is an understanding of how other molecules present in cells regulate the activity of the enzyme toward insulin, IDE's most important physiologically relevant substrate. Previous kinetic studies of the IDE-dependent degradation of insulin in the presence of potential regulators have used iodinated insulin, a chemical modification that has been shown to alter the biological and biochemical properties of insulin. Here, we present a novel kinetic assay …

Intranasal Rapamycin Ameliorates Alzheimer-Like Cognitive Decline In A Mouse Model Of Down Syndrome, Antonella Tramutola, Chiara Lanzillotta, Eugenio Barone, Andrea Arena, Ilaria Zuliani, Luciana Mosca, Carla Blarzino, D. Allan Butterfield, Marzia Perluigi, Fabio Di Domenico

Chemistry Faculty Publications

Background: Down syndrome (DS) individuals, by the age of 40s, are at increased risk to develop Alzheimer-like dementia, with deposition in brain of senile plaques and neurofibrillary tangles. Our laboratory recently demonstrated the disturbance of PI3K/AKT/mTOR axis in DS brain, prior and after the development of Alzheimer Disease (AD). The aberrant modulation of the mTOR signalling in DS and AD age-related cognitive decline affects crucial neuronal pathways, including insulin signaling and autophagy, involved in pathology onset and progression. Within this context, the therapeutic use of mTOR-inhibitors may prevent/attenuate the neurodegenerative phenomena. By our work we aimed to rescue mTOR signalling …

Kinetic Characterization Of The Shigella Type Three Secretion System Atpase Spa47 Using Α-32p Atp, Heather B. Case, Nicholas E. Dickenson

Chemistry and Biochemistry Faculty Publications

ATPases represent a diverse class of enzymes that utilize ATP hydrolysis to support critical biological functions such as driving ion pumps, providing mechanical work, unfolding/folding proteins, and supporting otherwise thermodynamically unfavorable chemical reactions. We have recently shown that the Shigella protein Spa47 is an ATPase that supports protein secretion through its specialized type three secretion apparatus (T3SA), supporting infection of human host cells. Characterizing ATPases, such as Spa47, requires a means to accurately determine enzyme activity (ATP hydrolysis) as a function of time, reaction conditions, and potential cofactors, regulators, inhibitors, etc. Here, we describe a detailed protocol for characterizing …

Application Of Click Chemistry In The Development Of Peptide Based Hiv Fusion Inhibitors, Mukesh Madan Mudgal, Nagaraju Birudukota

Chemistry and Physics Faculty Articles

Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) continues to be a major global public health issue. Inhibition of HIV envelope fusion with the CD4 cell membrane prevents the entry of HIV into the CD4 cells providing a novel approach to the treatment of HIV infection. Thus, interference in the fusion of the virus with the co-receptor substrate appears to be a specific and potential way to fight HIV infection and replication. Applications of click chemistry are spreading in the field of drug discovery and it became a powerful tool for the synthesis of medicinally important compounds.

Remarkably, the Cu (I)-Catalyzed Azide-Alkyne Cycloaddition (CuAAC) …

Analysis And New Applications Of Metal Organic Frameworks (Mof): Thermal Conductivity Of A Perovskite-Type Mof And Incorporation Of A Lewis Pair Into A Mof., Wilarachchige D C B Gunatilleke

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Metal organic frameworks have gained much attention due to their tunable pore sizes and very high surface areas. With the discovery many of these type materials the need has raised to look into new applications of theses porous frameworks. This thesis focuses on the synthesis of a new perovskite-type metal organic framework and measurement of its thermal conductivity in search of its applicability as a thermoelectric material. The second part of this work focuses on the synthesis of a metal organic framework incorporated with a Lewis pair for the first time. The optimum loading amount of the Lewis pair into …

Characterization And Effect Of Metal Ions On The Formation Of The Thermus Thermophilus Sco Mixed Disulfide Intermediate, Liezelle C. Lopez, Nikita Mukhitov, Lindsey D. Handley, Cristina S. Hamme, Cristina R. Hofman, Lindsay Euers, Jennifer R. Mckinney, Amani D. Piers, Ellen Wadler, Laura M. Hunsicker-Wang

Chemistry Faculty Research

The Sco protein from Thermus thermophilus has previously been shown to perform a disulfide bond reduction in the Cu_A protein from T. thermophilus, which is a soluble protein engineered from subunit II of cytochrome ba ₃ oxidase that lacks the transmembrane helix. The native cysteines on TtSco and TtCu_A were mutated to serine residues to probe the reactivities of the individual cysteines. Conjugation of TNB to the remaining cysteine in TtCu_A and subsequent release upon incubation with the complementary TtSco protein demonstrated the formation of the mixed disulfide intermediate. The cysteine of …