Leveraging Electron Transfer Dissociation for Site Selective Radical Generation: Applications for Peptide Epimer Analysis

Traditional electron-transfer dissociation (ETD) experiments operate through a complex combination of hydrogen abundant and hydrogen deficient fragmentation pathways, yielding c and z ions, side-chain losses, and disulfide bond scission. Herein, a novel dissociation pathway is reported, yielding homolytic cleavage of carbon–iodine bonds via electronic excitation. This observation is very similar to photodissociation experiments where homolytic cleavage of carbon–iodine bonds has been utilized previously, but ETD activation can be performed without addition of a laser to the mass spectrometer. Both loss of iodine and loss of hydrogen iodide are observed, with the abundance of the latter product being greatly enhanced for some peptides after additional collisional activation. These observations suggest a novel ETD fragmentation pathway involving temporary storage of the electron in a charge-reduced arginine side chain. Subsequent collisional activation of the peptide radical produced by loss of HI yields spectra dominated by radical-directed dissociation, which can be usefully employed for identification of peptide isomers, including epimers.

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Studies of Store-Induced Limit-Cycle Oscillations Using a Model with Full System Nonlinearities

The authors investigate limit-cycle oscillations of a wing/store configuration. Unlike typical aeroelastic studies that are based upon a linearized form of the governing equations, herein full system nonlinearities are retained, and include transonic flow effects, coupled responses from the structure, and store-related kinematics and dynamics. Unsteady aerodynamic loads are modeled with the equations from transonic small disturbance theory. The structural dynamics for the cantilevered wing are modeled by the nonlinear equations of motion for a beam. The effects of general store-placement are modeled by the nonlinear equations of motion related to the position-induced nonlinear kinematics. Chordwise deformations of the wing surface, as well as pylon and store flexibility, are assumed negligible. Nonlinear responses are studied by examining bifurcation and related response characteristics using direct simulation. Particular attention is given to cases for which large-time, time-dependent behavior is dependent on initial conditions, as observed for some configurations in flight test. Comparisons of results in which selective nonlinearities are excluded indicate that the accurate prediction of nonlinear responses such as limit cycle oscillations (LCOs) may depend upon consideration of all nonlinearities related to the full system.     

Exploiting space‐group symmetry in fragment‐based molecular crystal calculations

Recent developments in fragment‐based methods make it increasingly feasible to use high‐level ab initio electronic structure techniques to molecular crystals. Such studies remain computationally demanding, however. Here, we describe a straightforward algorithm for exploiting space‐group symmetry in fragment‐based methods which often provides computational speed‐ups of several fold or more. This algorithm does not require a priori specification of the space group or symmetry operators. Rather, the symmetrically equivalent fragments are identified automatically by aligning the individual fragments along their principle axes of inertia and testing for equivalence with other fragments. The symmetry operators relating equivalent fragments can then be worked out easily. Implementation of this algorithm for computing energies, nuclear gradients with respect to both atomic coordinates and lattice parameters, and the nuclear hessian is described. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Structure and properties of a novel cobaltate La0.30CoO2

The layered cobaltate La_0.30CoO₂ was prepared from Na_xCoO₂ precursor by a solid-state ionic exchange and was characterized by means of X-ray and neutron diffraction, magnetic, thermal and electric transport measurements. The compound consists of hexagonal sheets of edge-sharing CoO₆ octahedra interleaved by lanthanum monolayers. Compared to Na⁺ in the parent system, the La³⁺ ions occupy only one-third of available sites, forming a 2-dimensional superstructure. The deviation from the ideal stoichiometry La_1/3CoO₂ introduces extra hole carriers into the diamagnetic LS Co³⁺ matrix making the sample Pauli paramagnetic. The temperature dependence of the electrical conductivity in La_0.30CoO₂ follows Mott's T^−1/3 law up to about 400 K, which is in contrast with the standard metallic behavior in the Na⁺ homolog possessing the same formal doping. The experiments are complemented by electronic structure calculations for La_0.30CoO₂ and related Na_xCoO₂ systems.     

Investigation into the molecular structure and energetic stability of endohedral and exohedral metallofullerene derivatives of C24

Density-functional theory was applied to the investigation of the structural and electronic properties of C₂₄ fullerene derivatives. Transition metals (TMs) from groups 11 and 12, in various oxidation and spin-states, are inserted at either endohedral (TM@C₂₄) or exohedral (TM-C₂₄) sites and their subsequent energetic stabilities are assessed. With the exception of Ag@C₂₄, all derivatives are predicted to occupy a minimum on the potential energy surface. The optimized exohedral TM-C₂₄ geometries yield TM-C bond lengths that are consistent with comparable carbon-metal bond lengths, and the overwhelming majority of the derivatives result in a slight deformation of the C₂₄ cage as the bonding carbon takes on more sp³ character. All of the TM@C₂₄ equilibrium structures maintain the integrity of the cage structure with a moderate increase in the diameter. All neutral exohedral and endohedral complexes favor the low spin-state; conversely, all of the charged exohedral complexes prefer the high spin-state, with the exception of Cu-C₂₄¹⁺ molecular ion. The Group 12 charged endohedral derivatives prefer the low spin-state, whereas the Group 11 molecular ions do not necessarily exhibit a definitive trend. Analysis of the energetic data predicts that of the lowest energy endohedral molecular species only four are predicted to be energetically favorable in terms of insertion energy and an advantageous HOMO-LUMO gap: Cu@C₂₄²⁺, Ag@C₂₄¹⁺, Au@C₂₄³⁺, and Zn@C₂₄²⁺.     

A new material for hydrogen storage; ScAl0.8Mg0.2

A novel aluminium rich alloy for hydrogen storage has been discovered, ScAl_0.8Mg_0.2, which has very promising properties regarding hydrogen storage capacity, kinetics and stability towards air oxidation in comparison to hydrogen absorption in state-of-the-art intermetallic compounds. The absorption of hydrogen was found to be very fast, even without adding any catalyst, and reversible. The discovered alloy crystallizes in a CsCl-type structure, but decomposes to ScH₂ and Al(Mg) during hydrogen absorption. Detailed analysis of the hydrogen absorption in ScAl_0.8Mg_0.2 has been performed using in situ synchrotron radiation powder X-ray diffraction, neutron powder diffraction and quantum mechanical calculations. The results from theory and experiments are in good agreement with each other.     

Estimating a mean matrix: boosting efficiency by multiple affine shrinkage

The unknown matrix M is the mean of the observed response matrix in a multivariate linear model with independent random errors. This paper constructs regularized estimators of M that dominate, in asymptotic risk, least squares fits to the model and to specified nested submodels. In the first construction, the response matrix is expressed as the sum of orthogonal components determined by the submodels; each component is replaced by an adaptive total least squares fit of possibly lower rank; and these fits are then summed. The second, lower risk, construction differs only in the second step: each orthogonal component is replaced by a modified Efron-Morris fit before summation. Singular value decompositions yield computable formulae for the estimators and their asymptotic and estimated risks. In the asymptotics, the row dimension of M tends to infinity while the column dimension remains fixed. Convergences are uniform when signal-to-noise ratio is bounded. This research was supported in part by National Science Foundation Grant DMS 0404547.