Thees ees my thesis.

Per request from Martha, the following is a sample from my thesis. This is the first paragraph from my introduction so it's supposed to hook the reader and keep them from putting it down. I will post something real on Monday after a weekend break from writing and I actually submit the thing to committee. Enjoy.

Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) are a class of synthesized compounds composed of two bonded phenyl rings with chlorine atoms located at any of the ten possible bonding carbons of the phenyl rings. Figure 1 shows the general structure of a PCB compound. From one to ten chlorine atoms may be present, at varying locations, resulting in a possible 209 different congeners. The congeners may be categorized by degree of chlorination (or homolog group), such as monosubstituted, disubstituted, and so forth. The highest degree of chlorination, the decasubstituted PCB, is properly named 2,2’,3,3’4,4’,5,5’,6,6’-decachlorobiphenyl. The use of proper names can be burdensome and more commonly PCBs are referenced using a naming system originally developed by Ballschmiter (Ballschmiter and Zell 1980). This naming system assigns a number to each PCB congener starting with the lowest degree of chlorination at the first possible substitution (2-chlorobiphenyl, PCB #1) up to the fully substituted PCB (PCB #209). Various numbering systems have been used since Ballschmiter’s originally proposed scheme, but most follow this order of naming and will differ in naming only a few select congeners (Table 1). Ballschmiter’s updated proposed numbering system (IUPAC) is used in this report.










Edit: I added the Figure to help clarify (maybe). It's my first picture on my blog. That is kind of depressing.