We report on a novel laser-based technique coined surface laser photofragmentation-fragment detection (SPF-FD) spectroscopy for detecting explosives residues, chemical warfare agents, and other hazardous materials on surfaces in real time at ambient conditions. Our technique utilizes one or two lasers to both photolyze the target species and to facilitate the detection of the characteristic pho...

Density functional theory (DFT) was used to understand the shock sensitivity on the properties of high energy density materials (HEDMs) using 1-(2-nitro2-azapropyl)-5H-tetrazole as a test molecule due to its small size and similar explosive properties to more common explosive compounds such as hexahydro-1,3,5-trinitro1,3,5-triazine (RDX), octahydro-1,3,5,7-tetranitro-1,3,5,7-tetraazocine (HMX)....

The RNA genome of the hepatitis C virus (HCV) establishes a network of long-distance RNA-RNA interactions that direct the progression of the infective cycle. This work shows that the dimerization of the viral genome, which is initiated at the dimer linkage sequence (DLS) within the 3'UTR, is promoted by the CRE region, while the IRES is a negative regulatory partner. Using differential 2'-acyla...

A unified decomposition scheme for two very important cyclic nitramines used as primary explosives RDX and HMX has been constructed using ab initio Density Functional Theory (DFT) calculations. Molecular parameters such as vibrational frequencies and moments of inertia corresponding to the computed potential energy profile of unimolecular decomposition of these nitramines were then used to obta...