Submitted by Claudinei Pracidelli (cpracide@ipen.br) on 2016-11-11T13:14:25Z No. of bitstreams: 0 / Made available in DSpace on 2016-11-11T13:14:25Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 / Os venenos de serpentes são complexas misturas de proteínas e peptídeos que apresentam uma variedade de atividades biológicas. Estudos apontam para uma rica diversidade de moléculas bioativas de baixa massa molecular nos venenos, como a crotamina, miotoxina A, peptídeos potenciadores de bradicinina (BPPs) inibidores do tipo Kunitz de serinopeptidases e tripeptídeos inibidores de metalopeptidases. O interesse nestas moléculas está relacionado ao potencial uso como agentes terapêuticos contra diversas patologias, como distúrbios da coagulação e modulação da atividade de metalopeptidases, moléculas estas envolvidas com tumorigenêse e outros processos patológicos como inflamação crônica e distúrbios neurológicos. O veneno da serpente Bitis gabonica rhinoceros provoca alterações fisiopatológicas como severa desordem na coagulação sanguínea e danos teciduais seguidos de necrose. No presente estudo foram isoladas e caracterizadas metalopeptidases e serinopeptidases, além de componentes de baixa massa molecular como inibidor do tipo Kunitz e BPPs. Estes peptídeos foram testados quanto a sua capacidade inibitória frente as peptidases endógenas e sequenciados por espectrometria de massa. Os nossos dados mostram que as peptidases isoladas degradam caseína e não tem atividade sobre colágeno. A serinopeptidase tem atividade β-fibrinogenolítica e o inibidor tipo Kunitz isolado apresenta maior capacidade de inibir a quimotripsina, com valor de Ki= 0,07 μM, mostrando-se um promissor substituto ao fármaco aprotinina. Este peptídeo apresentou também atividade citotóxica em células B16F10 e tênue atividade antimicrobiana. Dentre os BPPs identificados, o peptídeo que possui sequência não canônica apresentou a capacidade de potencializar a ação da bradicinina tanto em ensaio edematogênico quanto de inibição da atividade enzimática da enzima conversora de angiotensina. Esses resultados indicam o potencial de peptídeos de venenos animais para o desenvolvimento de novos agentes terapêuticos para o tratamento de enfermidades como hipertensão e distúrbios de coagulação. / Tese (Doutorado em Tecnologia Nuclear) / IPEN/T / Instituto de Pesquisas Energeticas e Nucleares - IPEN-CNEN/SP

Portable mass spectrometers provide a unique opportunity to obtain in situ measurements. This minimizes need for sample collection or in laboratory analysis. Membrane Inlet Mass Spectrometry (MIMS) utilizing a semi permeable membrane for selective rapid introduction for analysis. Polydimethylsiloxane membranes have been proven to be robust in selecting for aromatic chemistries. Advances in front end design have allowed for increased sensitivity, rapid sample analysis, and on line measurements. Applications of the membrane inlet technique have been applied to environmental detection of clandestine drug chemistries and pollutants. Emplacement of a mass spectrometer unit in a vehicle has allowed for large areas to be mapped, obtaining a rapid snapshot of the various concentrations and types of environmental pollutants present. Further refinements and miniaturization have allowed for a backpackable system for analysis in remote harsh environments. Inclusion of atmospheric dispersion modeling has yielded an analytical method of approximating upwind source locations, which has law enforcement, military, and environmental applications. The atmospheric dispersion theories have further been applied to an earth based separation, whereby chemical properties are used to approximate atmospheric mobility, and chemistries are further identified has a portable mass spectrometer is traversed closer to a point source.

The thesis aims at building an experimental setup for conducting the boundary ejection and resonance ejection experiments on wide variety of ion trap mass analyzers. The experimental setup has two parts namely power electronics circuits and mechanical assembly. The focus of the thesis is on the electronics hardware which provides various power sources required for the operation of ion trap mass spectrometer. The electronics circuits discussed in the thesis have better performance, flexibility and ruggedness compared to the existing setup. The traditional power supplies used in ion trap mass spectrometers are all linear supplies. But one major drawback of these supplies is the high power dissipation and consequently, the power efficiency degrades. We are trying to introduce switch mode power supplies to reduce the power dissipation loss and eventually increase the power efficiency. In the course of the work the following power supplies have been developed. The supplies are - 1.Constant current source, 2.Filament base, 3.gating power supply and pulsing circuit, 4.High voltage DC power supply and 5. High voltage RF generator.

This thesis investigates the loss of high mass ions due to the initial thermal energy in ion trap mass analyzers. It provides an analytical expression for estimating the percentage loss of ions of a given mass at a particular temperature, in a trap operating with a set of conditions. The investigations have been carried out on quadrupole and cylindrical ion trap geometries. The three-dimensional Maxwellian velocity distribution function has been assumed to derive an expression for the percentage of ions lost. Adopting an approximation based on the observed escape velocity profiles of ions, an expression for the percentage loss of ions of a given mass has been derived as a function of the temperature for an ensemble of ions, its mass and its escape velocity. An analytical expression for the escape velocity has also been developed. It is seen that the escape velocity is a function of the trapping field, drive frequency and ion mass. Because the trapping field is determined by trap design parameters and operating conditions, it has been possible to study the influence of these parameters on ion loss. The parameters investigated include ion temperature, magnitude of the initial potential applied to the ring electrode (which determines the low mass cut-off), trap size, dimensions of apertures in the endcap electrodes and RF drive frequency. The studies demonstrate that ion loss due to initial thermal energy increases with increase in mass and that ion escape occurs in the radial direction. Reduction in the loss of high mass ions is favoured by lower ion temperatures, increasing low mass cut-off, increasing trap size, and higher RF drive frequencies. The dimensions of the apertures in the endcap electrodes do not influence ion loss in the range of aperture sizes considered.

Axially symmetric rf ion traps consists of a mass analyser having three electrodes, one of which is a central ring electrode and the other two are endcap electrodes. In the ideal Paul trap mass spectrometer, the electrodes have hyperboloidal shape (March and Hughes, 1989) and in mass analyser with simplified geometry, such as the cylindrical ion trap (Wu et al.,2005) the central electrode is a cylinder and the two endcap electrode and flat plates. rf-only or rf/dc potential is applied across the ring electrode and the grounded endcap electrodes for conducting the basic experiments of the mass spectrometer. In recent times, the miniaturisation of ion trap is one of the research interests in the field of mass spectrometry. The miniaturisation has the advantages of compactness, low power consumption and portability. However, this is achieved at the cost of the overall performance of the mass spectrometer with its deleterious effect on resolution. Research groups study the field distribution in the trap for better understanding of ion dynamics in the direction of achieving improved performance with the miniaturised traps. One aspect which has not received any attention in research associated with quadrupole ion traps is the possible role of the magnetic field in improving performance of these traps. Since in the quadrupole ion trap mass analyser ion is confined by an oscillating (rf) field, magnetic fields have been considered superfluous. The motivation of the thesis is to understand the dynamics of ions in axially symmetric rf ion traps, in the presence of the magnetic field. The axially symmetric rf ion trap geometries considered in this thesis are the Paul trap and the cylindrical ion trap (CIT). The changes incurred to the ion motion and Mathieu stability diagram in the presence of magnetic field is observed in this work. Also, the relation between the magnetic field and the Mathieu parameter is shown. The thesis contains 4 chapters: Chapter 1 provides the basic back ground of mass spectrometry and the operating principles. The equations of ion motion in the Paul trap is derived and also the solution to Mathieu equation is provided. The solution to the Mathieu equation are the Mathieu parameters and , when plotted with on the x-axis and on the y-axis, results in the Mathieu stability plot, the explanation of which is also given in the chapter. A brief description of the secular frequency associated with the ion dynamics is given in this chapter. The popular experiments conducted (i.e. the mass selective boundary ejection and resonance ejection) with a mass spectrometer is described here. Finally at the end of the chapter is the scope of the thesis. Chapter 2 facilitates with the preliminary study required fort he accomplishment of the task. The Paul trap and the CIT are the rf ion traps considered in this work. The geometries of these two traps are described in this chapter. The computational methods used for the analysis of various aspects of mass spectrometer is introduced. The computational methods used involve the methods used for calculating the charge distribution on the electrodes, potentials, multipole co-efficients and trajectory calculations. The boundary element method(BEM), calculation for Potentials and the Runge-Kutta method used for the trajectory calculations are introduced in this chapter. The expressions for calculating the multipole co-efficients are also specified. Chapter 3 presents the results obtained. The equations of ion motion in a quadrupole ion trap in the presence of magnetic field is derived here. Verification of numerical results with and without the magnetic field are presented at the end of this chapter. The chapter also presents various graphs showing the impact of magnetic field on the ion dynamics in the Paul trap and the CIT. The impact of the presence of magnetic field on the micro motion in -, -and -directions of the rf ion traps are shown in this chapter. Also the figures showing the variation in the Mathieu stability plots, with varying magnetic field intensity are presented in the chapter. At the end of this chapter the relation between the magnetic field and the Mathieu parameter is derived and plotted. Chapter 4 explains the various observations made from the results obtained. This chapter also highlights the future scope of the work for making this a more applicable one. References in the text have been given by quoting the author’s name and year of publication. Full references have been provide, in an alphabetic order, at the end of the thesis.