Incremental evolution of induced anisotropy

The aim of this article is to define a model that describes the evolution of the yield surface during plasticity. We propose a modelisation that is completely different from the classical approach as far as conception is concerned. It consists of describing the yield surface evolution with the help of velocity. The yield function is not directly known but is obtained by integrating a differential law starting from an initial surface. A very simple evolution law is used; the complexity of the induced anisotropy is obtained by incremental accumulation.     

Study of a fiber-optic LAN with a distributed controller

In this paper the performance of a fiber-optic LAN with spread spectrum multiplexing is discussed from the viewpoint of transmission parameters. Two architectures are considered. The first concerns a structure with cascade-connected Y-type fiber-optic couplers. The second concerns an architecture with cascade-connected active optoelectronic repeater-coupler (ORCA) devices.     

Short Te …︁ Te bonding contacts in a new layered ternary telluride: Synthesis and crystal structure of 2D Nb3GexTe6 (x ≃ 0.9)

The new layered ternary compound Nb₃Ge_xTe₆ (x ? 0.90) was prepared by direct combination of the elements taken in the stoichiometric proportions 3 : 1 : 6, heated at 1 000 °C for 10 days in silica tubes and quenched to room temperature. The phase crystallizes in the orthorhombic symmetry, space group Pnma (#62), with the following single crystal refined parameters: a = 643.18(5) pm, b = 1391.98(11)pm and c = 1 154.07(5) pm, with Z = 4. The structure was refined to an R of 3.4% (R_w = 4.6%), with 1969 independent reflexions and 49 parameters. The structure is based on the close stacking of trigonal prismatic (TP) slabs in the AA/BB mode. The slabs can be seen as built up from face sharing biprisms, which are filled either by one or by two niobium cations situated in the middle of the trigonal prisms. The germanium is located in the middle of the common face of two prisms, leading to a rather unusual anionic square coordination. The refinements showed that this latter cation does not fill completely its square site. No cation was found in the van der Waals gap between the slabs. The mean d_{Ge? Te} distance (276.5 pm) is in agreement with Ge^II cations, while some Te …? Te distances (from 333.84 to 361.65pm) are too short for anions in a simple contact. These bonding distances, already mentionned in some MTe₂ compounds, are to be ascribed to charge transfer in the structure, with a partial oxidation state for the tellurium anions. Short Nb? Nb and Nb? Ge distances (292.0 and 281.3 pm, respectively) imply intercationic bonding within the slabs.     

Additions of enantiopure alpha-sulfinyl carbanions to (S)-N-sulfinimines: asymmetric synthesis of beta-amino sulfoxides and beta-alphamino alcohols

The addition of the lithium anions derived from (R)- and (S)-methyl and -ethyl p-tolyl sulfoxides to (S)-N-benzylidene-p-toluenesulfinamide provides an easy access route to enantiomerically pure beta-(N-sulfinyl)amino sulfoxides. Stereoselectivity can be achieved when the configurations at the sulfur atoms of the two reagents are opposite (matched pair), thus resulting in only one diastereoisomer, even for the case in which two new chiral centers are created. The N-sulfinyl group primarily controls the configuration of the carbon bonded to the nitrogen, whereas the configuration of the alpha-sulfinyl carbanion seems to be responsible for the level of asymmetric induction, as well as for the configuration of the new stereogenic C-SO carbon in the reactions with ethyl p-tolyl sulfoxides. An efficient method for transforming the obtained beta-(N-sulfinyl)amino sulfoxides into optically pure beta-amino alcohols, based on the stereoselective non-oxidative Pummerer reaction, is also reported.     

Following the aggregation of amyloid-forming peptides by computer simulations

There is experimental evidence suggesting that the toxicity of neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's disease may result from the soluble intermediate oligomers. It is therefore important to characterize extensively the early steps of oligomer formation at atomic level. As these structures are metastable and short lived, experimental data are difficult to obtain and they must be complemented with numerical simulations. In this work, we use the activation-relaxation technique coupled with a coarse-grained energy model to study in detail the mechanisms of aggregation of four lys-phe-phe-glu (KFFE) peptides. This is the shortest peptide known to form amyloid fibrils in vitro. Our simulations indicate that four KFFE peptides adopt a variety of oligomeric states (tetramers, trimers, and dimers) with various orientations of the chains in rapid equilibrium. This conformational distribution is consistent with all-atom molecular-dynamics simulations in explicit solvent and is sequence dependent; as seen experimentally, the lys-pro-gly-glu (KPGE) peptides adopt disordered structures in solution. Our unbiased simulations also indicate that the assembly process is much more complex than previously thought and point to intermediate structures which likely are kinetic traps for longer chains.     

Very general formation of tetrahydropterin cation radicals during reaction of iron porphyrins with tetrahydropterins: model for the corresponding NO-synthase reaction

Electron transfer from tetrahydropterins to iron porphyrins, with formation of intermediate tetrahydropterin cation radicals, is a very general reaction that was shown to occur not only with tetrahydrobiopterin, as originally found in NO-synthases, but also with another important biological cofactor, tetrahydrofolate, and various iron porphyrins, either in their ferric state, or in the Fe(II)O(2) state, as in the first model of the corresponding NO-synthase reaction described in this paper.