The fragmentation characteristics of protonated peptides have been investigated using
tandem mass spectrometry (MS/MS) under various fragmentation regimes and detailed
density functional theory (DFT) reaction pathway calculations. The DFT calculations
predict novel salt-bridge stabilized transition structures as well as consecutive reactions
occurring in proton-bound dimers for some of the ions...
Myosins are actin-based molecular motors that may have specialized trafficking and contractile functions in cytoskeletal compartments that lack microtubules. The postsynaptic excitatory synapse is one such specialization, yet little is known about the spatial organization of myosin motor proteins in the mature brain. We used a proteomics approach to determine...
In this dissertation, I present the work of developing more efficient and economical techniques for fragmenting large bio-molecules, and ultimately making mass spectrometry a more powerful tool in proteomics, DNA sequencing, and other areas of biomolecular analysis.
Aiming at lowering the installation and operating cost, and delivering electron capture dissociation...
The fusion reaction ²⁰⁸Pb (⁵⁰Ti, xn) ²⁵⁸⁻x Rf (x = 1-3) was studied to determine PCN (probability that the mononucleus system evolves to form a compound nucleus inside the fission saddle point) and to establish the value of Wsur (survival probability) for the given reaction experimentally. The fission excitation function...
New chemical synthesis strategies have been investigated for the preparation of acceptor-type graphite intercalation compounds (GIC's) with fluoroanions in order to obtain new materials and to develop a better understanding of the synthetic approaches and properties of the products. New GIC's containing borate chelate anion such as bis(oxalato)borate, CxB[OC(O)C(O)O]₂•δF, are...
The purpose of this investigation was to determine the nature of the extractives from red alder bark in an effort to discover the materials which cause the red stain in red alder wood. Samples of bark and wood were obtained and successively extracted with hexane, benzene, ether, ethanol, and hot...
The atmospheric transport of anthropogenic semivolatile organic compounds (SOCs) from Asian sources to the Western U.S. was investigated. In addition, the SOC extraction method was optimized. Hansen solubility parameter plots were used to aid in the pressurized liquid extraction (PLE) solvent selection of air sampling media in order to minimize...
Dielectrophoresis (DEP) is a separation method in which a non-uniform electric
field is used to induce a dipole moment in a suspended particle. If the polarization
of the particle is greater than that of the suspending medium, the particle will move
towards the region of higher field strength (positive DEP);...
The general emphasis of this work has been synthesis, characterization, and applications of n- and p-type inorganic oxide thin films that are deposited from solutions. In particular, a study of n-type transparent semiconductor films of tin (IV) oxide and zinc-doped tin (IV) oxide has been performed by spin coating. Solution...
The thermodynamic properties of 39 PBDEs have been calculated using Gaussian 03
on the B3LYP/6-31G(d)//B3LYP/6-31G(d) level. The PBDE congeners' enthalpies of
formation increase with increasing number of bromines and show a strong dependence on
the bromine substitution pattern. The effects of bromine substitution pattern have been
quantitatively studied by GAM...