Gold Nanoclusters are of particular interest due to their many possible applications across a wide range of scientific fields. More specifically, nano-sized gold particles have potential to be used in drug delivery systems, cancer therapy and catalysis. This dissertation focuses on improving our understanding of ligated gold nanoclusters by examining the role of a variety of phosphine based ligands, novel methods to produce monodisperse solutions, and investigating the kinetics of water soluble ligated gold nanoclusters. The addition of ligands to solutions of Au have shown to produce small (< 20 Au atoms) clusters. All nanocluster solutions were prepared in a similar manner. Typically, a gold salt, either Chloro(triphenylphosphine) gold(I) (Au(PPh3)Cl), or Potassium gold (III) chloride (KAuCl4), were dissolved in various solvents. Next, an equal concentration of ligand was added to the solution and stirred until completely dissolved. Finally, all were reduced with 5X the concentration of borane-tert-butylamine (BTBC) after which were sonicated for ~20 minutes. The timing and method of adding the ligands and reducing agent varied depending on the solution and solubility of the ligands. Primarily we used Electrospray Ionization Mass Spectrometry (ESI-MS) and Ultraviolet – Visible Spectroscopy (UV-VIS) for the characterization of samples, however, occasionally Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM), X-Ray Diffraction (XRD) and X-Ray Photoemission Spectroscopy (XPS) were used. The most recent research took advantage of the size selective nature of an alpha hemolysin (a-HL) nanopore to investigate the kinetics of thiol-ligated Au clusters ~2 nm in size. The relationship between ligand rigidity and solvent polarity and the size and dispersity of Au cluster suspensions was investigated. We observed the formation of stable monodisperse clusters with the shortest ligand, (L3), independent of solvent. With a longer flexible ligand, (L6), we observed primarily Au8-10 cores depending on the ratio of L6/PPh3. All other ligands yielded polydisperse distributions. These dispersions contained clusters with a nuclearity between 8 and 11, for example [Au10(PPh3)9]3+ in LBn and [Au8(PPh3)7]2+ in LBp, were observed in the initial stages, but they were not stable and precipitated out or plated the glass vial. We also observed that the polarity of the solvent did not play a significant role in the formation of MPC’s, however a correlation between the size of the solvent and MPC formation was observed. The growth and evolution of two unique gold structures was also observed via UV-Vis and ESI-MS. Solutions were prepared which contained Potassium gold (III) chloride and PPh2(CH2)3PPh2, i.e., 1,3-bis(diphenylphosphino)propane, denoted by L3, reduced with Borane tert-butylamine complex (BTBC) in a 1:1 diethyl ether:methanol mix, which yielded a stable [Au11(L3)5]+3. Starting with this known Au11 solution, the addition of Mn2+ has shown to lead to the formation of a stable diphosphine ligated Au8 and a new Au14 species. Additionally, we show that the co-reduction of NiCl2 and Au in the absence of the ligand (L3) does give us a simple method for the production of a monodisperse [Au9(PPh3)8]2+ cluster solution and via electroless deposition does give us a potential low temperature pathway to the formation of a AuNi nanoalloy particle.

Triage nursing assessment supports nursing professionals in delivering safe and effective patient care in emergency departments. This staff education project was driven by an observation of inconsistencies in triage among emergency department (ED) nursing staff. The purpose of the project was to improve the triage assessment knowledge of ED nurses. Specifically, the aim was to determine if educating ED nursing staff about using the Emergency Severity Index (ESI), a 5-level triage algorithm and a previously developed tool, would improve nurse knowledge in the triage process. Following discussion with the ED nursing manager at a hospital, a presentation on the ESI was developed and pre- and posttest questions were used to assess and enhance the nursing staff members triage knowledge. The 16 members of the ED nursing staff attended the ESI education session, which was preceded by a pretest and followed by a posttest. The pretest results ranged from 68% to 96% on the 25 items, and the posttest resulted in an increase in test scores. The p value on the sample t test was 0.000, which demonstrated that the training was effective. The outcomes of this project might promote positive social change by helping to ensure that nurses in the ED can improve triage assessment

La tesi té com a objectiu l'obtenció d'una sèrie d'equips automatitzats per a l'anàlisi de paràmetres d'interès mediambiental. Les bases de partida, fonamentades en els coneixements del GSB (UAB), són les tècniques de flux continu (FIA), com manera d'una senzilla automatització, i l'acoblament d'un tipus de sensor com són els àmpliament emprats ESI. L'objectiu final implica l'aplicació final dels equips obtinguts dintre d'un programa de monitorització de la qualitat de l'aigua de riu. L'empresa Adasa Sistemas és la que durà a terme l'aplicació. Per això, els equips desenvolupats han de complir uns requisits de caràcter tècnic i funcional: robustesa, règim autònom d'una setmana, precisió del 10%, exactitud del 20%, mínim manteniment, autocalibració, ...Visant la primera fita, i en base a estudis anteriors al GSB, l'equip d'amoni (AQUAMONIA®) incorpora un procés de difusió gasosa que permet que l'ESI d'amoni assoleixi un elevat grau de selectivitat i sensibilitat. Una vegada desenvolupat l'equip i realitzada la seva validació en camp (rius Ebre i Llobregat) s'ha instal·lat en diverses estacions del programa SAICA, i posteriorment s'incoporà al programa XACQA. Per desenvolupar l'analitzador de nitrat, i a fi d'assolir la segona fita marcada, l'estudi s'inicia amb el disseny i l'optimització del sensor potenciomètric (ESI). S'avança amb la seva integració en un sistema de flux. Degut a les característiques de la matriu d'aplicació, l'estudi d'interferències adquireix una especial rellevància. Els resultats d'aquests ens porten a concloure la necessitat d'incorporar en sèrie un sensor de clorur. L'ESI de clorur ens permetrà la senzilla compensació de la mesura interferida del nitrat. La correcció és matemàtica seguint l'equació de Nikolskii-Einseman. L'equip AQUANITRA® determina de forma simultània nitrat i clorur. Superada la seva validació en camp s'integra en les xarxes SAICA i XACQA.En el disseny del tercer analitzador, s'assoleix la construcció d'un primer prototipus que ha estat validat en condicions de laboratori amb mostres reals. L'equip integra l'anterior determinació dels ions amoni, nitrat-clorur, i la determinació de fosfat mitjançant un ESI. Però, presenta un elevat límit de detecció respecte aquesta última espècie, per tant, en un futur es planteja la incorporació d'un sistema de preconcentració.Dintre de la mateixa filosofia però donant un pas endavant cap a la miniaturització, s'estudia l'escalat (reducció) dels diferents equips. Això s'assoleix amb els microsistemes. Les condicions hidrodinàmiques de funcionament no mostren cap influencia de l'escalat a aquest nivell. Les millores respecte a la integració del sistema desbombollador i l'elèctrode de terra són evidents, però resta per superar la integració dels diferents sensors. / The objective of this thesis is the development of various automatic analysers for the determination of relevant environmental parameters. The scientific bases, coming from GSB's (UAB) knowledge, are the continuous flow techniques (FIA) as an easy automation procedure, and potentiometric sensor (ISE) as detection system. Adasa Sistemas, S.A enterprise, will apply in real world all the analysers developed at the final step to the monitoring of river water quality. So, the technical and operative requirements for this application are: robustness, unattended operation, 10% of accuracy, 20% of precision, minimum maintenance, autocalibration, .Some preliminary studies carried out in our laboratories allows the fast design and construction of ammonium analyser (AQUAMONIA®) with an ammonium electrode (flow-through configuration) and gaseous diffusion cell to attain a great sensibility and selectivity. After its validation in field conditions (Ebro and Llobregat Rivers) it was installed inside automatic alert stations belonging SAICA (national) and XACQA (regional) monitoring networks.At the first stage of nitrate analyser development, AQUANITRA®, we design and optimise the potentiometric sensor (ISE). Due to the high content of chloride ion in river water it has an important interference in nitrate determination. So it is necessary to incorporate a second serial ISE (chloride electrode) to determine its concentration and correct mathematically nitrate concentration by means of Nikolskii-Einseman's equation: the analyser carry out the simultaneous determination of nitrate and chloride ions. It was also installed in SAICA and XACQA networks.The third automatic analyser integrates previously described systems for the monitoring of ammonium and nitrate-chloride ions, plus the potentiometric determination of phosphate. And it has been validated in laboratory conditions with real samples. Owing to the high detection limit of phosphate electrode for a real application will be necessary a preliminary preconcentration step.An other objective is the miniaturisation of all analyser developed, mainly the third one. The first studies show no influence on the hidrodynamic conditions of the mircroflow system designed. A debubbling system and the grounding electrode have been successfully and easily implemented, but it must be greatly improved the sensor's integration.

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Density gradient ultracentrifugation (DGU) is a powerful method for analyzing lipoprotein particles in great detail. It yields considerable amounts of information regarding the density distribution of these particles when coupled with fluorometric analysis and is an invaluable tool in determining their relative abundance. This union allows relationships between subclasses of lipoproteins to be established that gives researchers a more focused path to aid them in developing methods to predict the early onset of coronary artery disease (CAD). The research presented here focuses on the pairing of DGU with post-separatory techniques including matrix-assisted laser desorption mass spectrometry (MALDI-MS), liquid chromatography mass spectrometry (LC-MS), capillary electrophoresis (CE), isoelectric focusing (IEF) and apoptosis studies involving cell cultures. It is becoming clearer that cholesterol concentrations themselves do not provide sufficient data to assess the quality of cardiovascular health. As a result, research is becoming more focused on identifying better markers that may be indicative of development of CAD in a patient. Of specific interest is group of particles known as high density lipoproteins (HDL). Classically, this molecule is considered the “good cholesterol”, but literature from the last decade suggests that there may be atherogenic variants to this group. By utilizing DGU as a preparatory method for secondary analyses, new dimensions can be added to the density distribution analysis to allow a better determination of markers of cardiovascular health. The aim of this work is to utilize the principles involved with these various techniques to develop a comprehensive set of methods to aid in the detection of potential risk markers. In this study, the properties of metal ion complexes of EDTA as solute systems for analysis of lipoproteins by DGU are analyzed. We show that by varying the complexing ion and counter-ion of these metal-ion complexes, we gain the ability to control the separation of lipoprotein subclasses for subsequent analyses. Qualitative and quantitative data is presented that describes the analysis of different density regions of HDL for apolipoprotein content. Trends between control and atherogenic samples are also described and a clinical link between the biological activity of these regions and the chemical analysis is discussed.

Mass spectrometry (MS) has played a major role in the proteomic analysis of an array of biological samples. Even so, inherent limitations exist such as sample complexity and the dynamic range. In an attempt to overcome these limitations, prefractionation is typically performed followed by reversed phase liquid chromatography coupled with MS. Pre-fractionation can be performed in several formats including chromatographic or electrophoretic based methods. Solution-based isoelectric point (pI) fractionation, specifically isoelectric trapping (IET), provides an attractive alternative for pre-fractionation in bottom-up proteomic studies. A recently developed device, membrane separated wells for isoelectric focusing and trapping (MSWIFT), provides rapid separation on the basis of pI and resulting solutions are MS compatible without the need for extensive sample cleanup. Initial experiments demonstrate fractionation using MSWIFT, of peptide mixtures ranging from standards to a yeast lysate where resulting fractions are analyzed using matrixassisted laser desorption/ionization (MALDI) – MS or further separated using reversed phase liquid chromatography followed by tandem MS (MS/MS) analysis. Identified yeast proteins range in size, pI and copy number illustrating an ability to increase the depth of proteome coverage when using MSWIFT. Extensive studies were also performed using MSWIFT in a multi-stage fractionation platform to improve peptide and protein identifications for the first large-scale proteomic study of the model fungus, Neurospora crassa. A second focus of this work is the development of a new sample preparation method for proteolytic digestion and high-throughput separations using MSWIFT. Histidine is used as a neutral pH, isoelectric, sample buffer for tryptic digestion of proteins and also assists in rapid separations using MSWIFT owing to the low conductivity. Tryptic digests of individual standard proteins and a mixture of standard proteins are used to illustrate these advantages. Finally, the histidine buffer sample preparation method is incorporated into a two-dimensional separation strategy. Tryptic peptides are fractionated using MSWIFT and resulting solutions are further separated using capillary electrophoresis (CE) coupled with MALDI-MS/MS. Performing the two-dimensional strategy allows for increased confidence in peptide and protein assignment owing to experimentally determined in-solution charge states and estimated pI values.

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Electrospray ionization (ESI) has been an invaluable technique to mass spectrometry (MS) especially for analyzing large bio-molecules with unparalleled sensitivity, robustness, and simplicity. Great effort in the development of ESI technique has been devoted in the emitter design, as its shape and geometry have proved pivotal to the electrospray performance and further MS detection. Intrinsic problems for the traditional single-hole emitters including clogging and low throughput limit the applicability of the technique. To address this issue, the current project is focused on developing multiple electrospray (MES) emitters for improved ESI-MS analysis. In this thesis, joint work of both computational fluid dynamic (CFD) simulations for electrospray and offline electrospray experiments for spray current measurement were performed. Numerical simulations were used to test the effect of various emitter designs on electrospray performance and the laboratory results serve as a guide and validation. The CFD code was based on Taylor-Melcher leaky dielectric model (LDM) and the transient electrospray process was successfully simulated. The method was first validated via a 750 μm inner diameter (i.d.) emitter and further applied to a 20 μm i.d. model. Different stages of the electrospray process were visually demonstrated and the quantitative investigations for the change of spray current under various applied electric fields and flow rates share good agreement with previous simulations and measurements. Based on the single-aperture prototype, MES simulations were performed with 2-hole and 3-hole emitters. Simulation predictions compared favorably with the experimental results. Evidence from this work has proved that CFD simulation can be used as an effective numerical tool to test emitter designs for MES. The benchmarking result on the successful simulation of a microscale emitter electrospray achieved in this work is believed to be the smallest scale of the dynamic simulation for electrospray published to date. / Thesis (Master, Chemistry) -- Queen's University, 2011-12-23 13:36:08.754

Orientador: Pedro de Magalhães Padilha / Resumo: Devido a sua grande concentração de nutrientes, tais como proteínas, vitaminas e minerais, o peixe é considerado um dos alimentos mais saudáveis que se pode encontrar na natureza. No entanto, a ingestão de peixes é considerada a forma predominante de via de exposição do ser humano ao mercúrio (Hg), principalmente para as populações que vivem às margens dos rios, onde o peixe constitui a principal fonte de proteína. Na tentativa de elucidar os mecanismos de toxicidade das espécies mercuriais, o teor desse metal tem sido estudado intensamente pela comunidade científica nas últimas décadas em amostras de solo, sedimentos, humanos e peixes na Amazônia brasileira. Sabe-se que as espécies mercuriais bioacumuladas nos tecidos dos seres vivos ligam-se a metaloproteínas, e quando há uma concentração alta de metal tóxico nos organismos, esses passam a expressar proteínas de defesa, denominadas metalotioneínas (MTs) responsáveis pelo transporte e eliminação de metais tóxicos. Apesar de estudos mostrarem o aumento das metalotioneínas em animais expostos a metais potencialmente tóxicos, essas proteínas não foram caracterizadas para confirmação de sua veridicidade, são analisadas por métodos indiretos, esse fato leva a necessidade de técnicas mais precisas na identificação de metalotioneínas. Levando em consideração o exposto esse estudo teve como objetivo otimizar métodos de quantificação de mercúrio e técnica de eletroforese para identificação de possíveis metalotioneínas biomarcadoras d... (Resumo completo, clicar acesso eletrônico abaixo) / Abstract: Due to its high concentration of nutrients, such as proteins, vitamins and minerals, fish is considered one of the healthiest foods that one can find in nature. However, fish intake is considered to be the predominant human exposure pathway to mercury (Hg), especially for populations living along riverbanks where fish are the main source of protein. In the attempt to elucidate the toxicity mechanisms of mercurial species, the content of this metal has been intensively studied by the scientific community in recent decades in soil, sediment, human and fish samples in the Brazilian Amazon. It is known that mercurial species bioaccumulated in the tissues of living beings bind to metalloproteins, and when there is a high concentration of toxic metal in organisms, they begin to express defense proteins, called metallothioneins (MTs) responsible for the transport and elimination of Toxic metals. Although studies have shown the increase of metallothioneins in animals exposed to potentially toxic metals, these proteins have not been characterized to confirm their veridicity, are analyzed by indirect methods, this fact leads to the need for more precise techniques in the identification of metallothioneins. Taking into account the above, this study aimed to optimize mercury quantification methods and electrophoresis technique for identification of possible mercury biomarkers metallothionein in muscular and hepatic tissue of fish of economic interest, Tucunaré (Cichla spp.), Filhote (Bra... (Complete abstract click electronic access below) / Doutor

Orientador: Pedro de Magalhães Padilha / Resumo: O peixe é uma importante fonte de proteínas de alto valor biológico, vitaminas e minerais. Porém, este alimento é também uma das principais vias de exposição humana a contaminantes tóxicos como o metilmercúrio (MeHg). Assim a sua acumulação no peixe pode predispor sérios riscos para a saúde humana. As altas concentrações de mercúrio encontrados em solo, sedimentos, peixes e humanos na Amazônia brasileira têm sido estudados intensamente pela comunidade científica nas últimas décadas, procurando-se elucidar os mecanismos de toxicidade das espécies mercuriais. As espécies mercuriais ligam-se preferencialmente às proteínas. Podendo significar que a fração biodisponível das espécies mercuriais nas diferentes espécies de peixes pode ser dependente da forma como estas estão ligadas a essas proteínas. Portanto esta proposta de trabalho buscou otimizar procedimentos eletroforéticos por 2D-PAGE para fracionamento e identificação de proteínas responsáveis pelo transporte de mercúrio em amostras de tecido muscular e hepático de peixes coletados no reservatório da Usina Hidrelétrica de Jirau – no rio Madeira; utilizando o método de espectrometria de absorção atômica em forno de grafite (GFAAS), para determinação de mercúrio nos tecidos e spots proteicos obtidos; avaliou o estresse oxidativo dos peixes contaminados com mercúrio por meio das atividades das enzimas catalase (CAT), glutationa peroxidase (GSH-Px) e superóxido dismutase (SOD), bem como das concentrações de hidroperóxido de lipí... (Resumo completo, clicar acesso eletrônico abaixo) / Doutor