Two identical instruments have been developed for use in the field to make radiometric measurements. They have been described as spectropolarimeters because of their ability to make polarization measurements in narrow spectral passbands. They have been used as part of a NASA sponsored project to monitor the spectral and temporal response of the thematic mapper satellites. These satellites allow many natural and man-tended resources to be monitored over years of time, thus allowing their use to be planned for in the future. The dissertation discusses the design, fabrication, testing and absolute radiometric calibration of these spectropolarimeter instruments. The outstanding feature of these instruments are that they have been calibrated absolutely, for radiance measurements, to an accuracy of 2% - 3%, in the range of 400 nm to 1040 nm over selected spectral passbands. Previously, field measurements were considered good if they had an absolute accuracy of 10%, implying that the present accuracies are advancing the state-of-the-art for field instrument calibrations. These improved accuracies are the result of using two recently developed calibration standards, both of which use detector based methods. These standards are the Electrically Calibrated Pyroelectric Radiometer (ECPR), and the QED-100 quad detector. The end of the dissertation discusses the attempts made to verify that the accuracies claimed are indeed valid, and it is the author's belief that these accuracies have been verified completely.

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Electrospray Ionization (ESI) is a technique that permits the soft ionization of large proteins and biomolecules without fragmenting them, which allows them to be characterized via Mass Spectrometry (MS). It has the potential of permitting the identification of transient intermediate products in biological processes in situ, which would provide great insight to researchers in the growing fields of proteomics and metabolomics. However, this application presents a technical challenge in that most relevant biochemistry occurs in aqueous solutions with high salt content, which makes successful identification of analytes by ESI-MS difficult. This thesis presents the design, fabrication, and characterization of a microfabricated dialysis module that could alleviate this issue by desalting samples inline between sampling and electrospraying interfaces. Its small volume (~10 nL) minimizes sample transit time and, thus, optimizes ESI-MS analysis temporal resolution. A preliminary analytical model of dialysis elucidates the key performance parameters and sets the guidelines for consideration in its design. The device is then microfabricated in a cleanroom environment using techniques that have been well established by the microelectronics industry such as E-beam evaporation and Reactive Ion Etching. The system efficiency is demonstrated experimentally by assessing its salt removal effectiveness as a function of sample residence time. Mass spectrometry analyses of proteins in solutions with high salt content further corroborate its performance.

Curcumin analogues are novel antineoplastic agents designed by structural modifications of the natural product curcumin to enhance its therapeutic effects. Various curcumin analogues displayed a significant cytotoxic effect towards different cancer cell lines including leukemia, melanoma, and colon cancer. In order to evaluate the safety, efficiency and metabolism of the new anticancer candidates, sensitive and high throughput analytical methods are needed. Thirteen curcumin analogues with the backbone structure of 3,5-bis(benzylidene)-4-piperidone were tested. The ionization behavior of curcumin analogues was investigated to reveal the possible mechanisms for the unusual formation of the positively charged [M-H]+ ions during single stage positive ion mode MALDI-MS analysis. Different ionization techniques (i.e., ESI, APCI, APPI, and MALDI) were used to evaluate this phenomenon. The results showed that curcumin analogues ionize into [M-H]+ along with the expected [M+H]+ species during MALDI and dopant free APPI-MS. In contrast, ESI, APCI and the dopant mediated APPI showed only the expected [M+H]+ peak. Our experiments revealed that photon energy triggers the ionization of the curcumin analogues even in the absence of any ionization enhancer such as matrix, solvent or dopant. Three proposed mechanisms for the formation of [M-H]+ were evaluated, two of them are probably involved in the [M-H]+ formation: (i) hydrogen transfer from the analyte radical cation and (ii) hydride abstraction. In addition to the ionization behavior, the collision induced dissociation-tandem mass spectrometric (CID-MS/MS) fragmentation behavior of curcumin analogues was evaluated showing similar dissociation pathways that centered on the piperidone ring of the 3,5-bis(benzylidene)-4-piperidone moiety. The presence of different substitutes on that moiety resulted in specific product ions for each curcumin analogue. The fragmentation patterns were established to confirm the chemical structure of the tested compounds and identify the diagnostic product ions of each compound. Twelve common product ions were identified resulting from the breakage of various bonds within the piperidone moiety. There was a tendency for the formation of highly conjugated product ions that are stabilized via resonance. Common product ions were identified allowing for the establishment of a general MS/MS behavior for any curcumin analogue that belongs to the 3,5-bis(benzylidene)-4-piperidone structural family. The fragmentation routes and the genesis of the product ions were confirmed via MS3 and neutral loss analysis. In summary, the ionization of curcumin analogues provided insights into the formation of unique [M-H]+ ions which were linked to photo ionization of such compounds without the need for additives, such as matrix, dopant or solvent. As such, curcumin analogues should be evaluated as MALDI matrices in the future. The CID-MS/MS analysis of curcumin analogues revealed a common fragmentation behavior of the tested compounds. It will be applied, in the future to determine metabolic by-products of the tested compounds as well as to develop targeted liquid chromatography (LC)-MS/MS methods.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Nevada, Reno, 2006. / "August, 2006." Includes bibliographical references (leaves xx-xx). Online version available on the World Wide Web.

Thesis (Ph.D.) -- McMaster University, 2001. / Includes bibliographical references. Also available via World Wide Web.