Perturbation theory for excited states. IV

Two of the perturbation methods developed in Paper I (CIPT and SCPT) are extended for use with uncoupled Hartree-Fock perturbation theory. Corrections to the uncoupled results are discussed and it is found that it is possible to correct using functions which when applied to ground state calculations are equivalent to the geometric approximation. It is also shown that CIPT and SCPT can be applied to ground state calculations and that when coupled perturbed orbitals are used CIPT and SCPT are equivalent to the usual coupled perturbation theory.     

Neville elimination: an efficient algorithm with application to chemistry

Solving linear systems is often required in chemical problems. Besides, birth and death processes occur in many chemical phenomena and the matrices associated to these processes are totally positive, that is, all their minors are nonnegative. Neville elimination is an elimination procedure very useful when dealing with these matrices. Convergence and stability of iterative refinement using Neville elimination are analyzed, in particular when the coefficient matrix is totally positive. Other applications to chemistry are commented and numerical experiments are shown.     

Optimization methods in chromatography and capillary electrophoresis

Many methods have been developed in order to optimize the parameters of interest in either chromatography or capillary electrophoresis. In chemometric approaches experimental measurements are performed in such a way that all factors vary together. An objective function is utilized in which the analyst introduces the desired criteria (selectivity, resolution, time of analysis). Simplex methods and overlapping resolution maps are declining. Factorial designs and central composite designs are more and more popular in electrodriven capillary separations since the number of parameters to master is much larger than in either GC or LC. The use of artificial neural networks is increasing. The advantage of chemometrics tools is that no explicit models are required, conversely the number of experiments to perform may be high and boundaries of the domain are not straightforward to draw and the approach does more than is required. When models are available optimization is easier to perform by regression methods. Computer assisted methods in RPLC are readily available and work well but are still in infancy in CE. Linear solvation energy relationships seem a very valuable tool but estimates of coefficients still require many experiments.     

配位多面体的群重叠积分

本文讨论了配位多面体的群重叠积分计算问题, 给出了这种群重叠积分的一般形式以及它们满足的一些关系, 用第一类点群将群重叠积分的计算化简, 由此定义了有关的几何参数并研究了它们的性质, 以正六面体为例说明了这些参数的具体计算。     

Virtual screening and library enumeration of new hydroxycinnamates based antioxidant compounds: A complete framework

Designing of molecules for drugs is important topic from many decades. The search of new drugs is very hard, and it is expensive process. Computer assisted framework can provide the fastest way to design and screen drug-like compounds. In present work, a multidimensional approach is introduced for the designing and screening of antioxidant compounds. Antioxidants play a crucial role in ensuring that the body's oxidizing and reducing species are kept in the proper balance, minimizing oxidative stress. Machine learning models are used to predict antioxidant activity. Three hydroxycinnamates are selected as standard antioxidants. Similar compounds are searched from ChEMBL database using chemical structural similarity method. The libraries of new compounds are generated using evolutionary method. New compounds are also designed using automatic decomposition and construction building blocks. The antioxidant activity of all designed and searched compounds is predicted using machine learning models. The chemical space of searched and generated compounds is envisioned using t-distributed stochastic neighbor embedding (t-SNE) method. Best compounds are shortlisted, and their synthetic accessibility is predicted to further facilitate the experimental chemists. The chemical similarity between standard and selected compounds is also studied using fingerprints and heatmap.     

Validation of remote, on-line, near-infrared measurements for the classification of demolition waste

The classification performance, based on measurements obtained by a dedicated remote near-infrared sensor, is validated. Goal is the separation of demolition waste in three fractions: wood, plastic, and stone. In phase one, reference objects are collected and measured in order to develop the classification algorithm and to obtain reference classification results. In phases two and three, the validation performance and robustness are tested under laboratory and industrial conditions. In phase two, preliminary measurements are performed in the laboratory, indicating that some sensor hardware modifications are necessary. In phase three, measurements are performed on a pilot plant according to the following validation design. On the conveyor belt, objects are measured in the middle and at both borders, wet objects are measured in the middle, and a small set of objects is measured during 4 consecutive days. It is checked whether the classification performance obeys the predefined demands. The applied chemometrical techniques are well capable of separating dry demolition waste if the objects are positioned in the middle of the conveyor belt. It is recommended to overcome the sensor miniaturization-scale limitations by applying larger optical parts. The hardware sensor is not robust to wet objects, although this problem was accounted for during the development of the classification procedure. Including wet objects in the training set might overcome this restriction.     

A detailed elastic analysis of the flat punch (tack) test for pressure‐sensitive adhesives

Detailed finite element calculations are carried out in order to study the mechanical response of a compliant layer sandwiched between a rigid cylindrical flat punch and a rigid substrate. Two cases of practical interest are considered: one in which the layer is perfectly bonded to the punch and the substrate and one in which the interface between the punch and the layer is frictionless. The substrate is assumed to be perfectly bonded to the adhesive layer in both cases. Analytic expressions are obtained for the stresses away from the edges, and the effect of lateral constraint is examined. The compliances of the loading systems for both cases are obtained numerically, and accurate analytic expressions are determined based on these numeric results. The nature of the stress fields near the contact edge are explored, and their connections with the energy release rate are determined. The relevance of these calculations to two recent adhesion tests is discussed. © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Polym Sci B: Polym Phys 38: 2769–2784, 2000     

Film formation with latex particles

The coalescence of latex particles is investigated through small-angle neutron scattering and electron microscopy. The particles are made of a soft polymeric core protected by a hydrophilic membrane, and they are dispersed in water. This dispersion is spread on a substrate, and water is removed to form a dry film. As the membranes of neighboring particles come into contact, they may break up to allow fusion of the particle cores. This is found to occur when the membranes are made of short-chain surfactant molecules; then all hydrophilic material is expelled to the film surface or to large isolated lumps. Alternatively, the membranes may remain until the film is completely dry; this is found to occur when they are made of hydrophilic polymers which are grafted onto the core. Hence, the fusion of particles is controlled by the connectivity of membranes.This work used the neutron beams of ILL in Grenoble and LLB in Saclay     

Controlled copolymer structures via anionic/insertion polymerization of cyclic carbonates

Cyclic carbonates are polymerized in a ring-opening fashion by means of anionic and insertion type initiatiors. Different hexacyclic carbonates are copolymerized in a random way when both monomers are added to the initiator simultaneously. Block copolymers are obtained when the monomers are added in sequential way. With anionic initiators cyclic carbonates are polymerized preferentially as compared with lactones while insertion initiators are less selective. A special case is the preparation of copolymers of carbonates with lactams. When the polycarbonate is formed first the lactam unit is inserted into carbonate bond to form urethane and ester bonds. Thus, eventually an alternating polyesterurethane is formed with negligible amount of carbonate, amide, and urea units. Moreover, the anionic ring-opening polymerization of cyclic carbonates may be combined with vinyl polymerization. In the case of group transfer polymerization a transformation of the active site to the non-metallic anionic initiation of the cyclic carbonate occurs.     

Spot-test detection of aryl hydrazines, hydrazones, osazones, oximes and aromatic amines

Arylhydrazines are detected by oxidation with N-bromosuccinimide and coupling with resorcinol to form azo-dyes which are intensely coloured in alkaline media. Hydrazones and osazones are hydrolysed to form the arylhydrazines, which are then tested for 4-Nitro- and 2,4-dinitrophenylhydrazines are tested for by forming their hydrazone with salicylaldehyde and adding alkali to produce a violet colour. The hydroxylamine formed by the hydrolysis of oximes is oxidized by iodine monochloride in the presence of sulphanilic acid; coupling with 8-hydroxyquinoline forms a dye that is red in alkali. Intense colours are immediately produced when primary, secondary and tertiary aromatic amines are mixed with diacetoxyiodobenzene. All the tests are sensitive and appear to be specific.     

Electrochemical phase formation (ECPF) and macrogrowth Part II. Two-rate models

A general theory is evolved for a class of macrogrowth models which possess two independent growth-rates. Relations connecting growth-rates to growth geometry are established and some new growth forms are shown to result for models with passivation or diffusion-controlled rates. The corresponding potentiostatic responses, their small and large time behaviours and peak characteristics are obtained. Numerical transients are also presented. An empirical equation is derived as a special case and an earlier equation is corrected. An interesting stochastic result pertaining to nucleation events in the successive layers is proved.     

Copper hydrometallugry and extraction from chloride media

The development of copper hydrometallurgy is presented and various processes proposed for copper recovery from sulphide concentrates are discussed. Leaching, extraction and stripping are considered, including reagents and processes. The extraction of copper from chloride solutions is discussed. Various extractants are presented and their use for copper transfer from chloride solutions to the organic phase and back to chloride and to sulphate solutions is discussed.     

Using Bayes methods and mixture models in inter-laboratory studies with outliers

Inter-laboratory studies (especially so-called key comparisons) are conducted to evaluate both national and international equivalence of measurement. In these studies, a reference value of some measurand (the quantity intended to be measured) is developed and results for all laboratories are compared to this single value. How to determine the reference value is not completely obvious if there are observations and/or laboratories that could be considered outliers. Since ignoring results from one or more participating laboratories is untenable in practical terms, developing methods that are robust to the possibility that a small fraction of the laboratories produces observations unlike those from the others is critical. This paper outlines two Bayesian methods of analyzing inter-laboratory data that have been proposed in the literature and suggests three modifications of one that are more robust to outliers. A simulation study is conducted to compare the five methods.     

Evaluation of a method for controlling molecular scaffold diversity in de novo ligand design

We describe an algorithm for the automated generation of molecular structures subject to geometric and connectivity constraints. The method relies on simulated annealing and simplex optimization of a penalty function that contains a variety of conditions and can be useful in structure-based drug design projects. The procedure controls the diversity and complexity of the generated molecules. Structure selection filters are an integral part and drive the algorithm. Several procedures have been developed to achieve reliable control. A number of template sets can be defined and combined to control the range of molecules which are searched. Ring systems are predefined. Normally, the ring-system complexity is one of the most elusive and difficult factors to control when fusion-, bridge- and spiro-structures are built by joining templates. Here this is not an issue; the decision about which systems are acceptable, and which are not, is made before the run is initiated. Queries for inclusion and exclusion spheres are incorporated into the objective function, and, by using a flexible notation, the structure generation can be directed and more focused. Simulated annealing is a reliable optimizer and converges asymptotically to the global minimum. The objective functions used here are degenerate, so it is likely that each run will produce a different set of good solutions.     

Calculation of the entropy and free energy from monte carlo simulations of a peptide stretched by an external force

Hypothetical scanning Monte Carlo (HSMC) is a method for calculating the absolute entropy, S, and free energy, F, from a trajectory generated by any simulation technique. HSMC was applied initially to fluids (argon and water) and later to peptides and self-avoiding walks on a lattice. In this paper we make a step further and apply it to a model of decaglycine (at T = 300 K) in vacuum with constant bond lengths where external stretching forces are exerted at the end points; the changes in S and F are calculated as the forces are increased. The molecule is placed initially in a helical structure, which is changed to an extended structure after a short simulation time due to the exerted forces. This study has relevance to problems in polymers (e.g., rubber elasticity) and to the analysis of experiments where individual molecules are stretched by atomic force microscopy (AFM), for example. The results for S and F are accurate and are significantly better than those obtained by the quasi-harmonic approximation and the local states method. However, the molecule is quite stiff due to the strong bond angle potentials and the extensions are small even for relatively large forces. Correspondingly, as the force is increased the decrease in the entropy is relatively small while the potential energy is enhanced significantly. Still, differences, TDeltaS, for different forces are obtained with very good accuracy of approximately 0.2 kcal/mol.     

Trends in microRNA detection

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are short, ~22 nucleotide length RNAs that perform gene regulation. Recently, miRNA has been shown to be linked with the onset of cancer and other diseases based on miRNA expression levels. It is important, therefore, to understand miRNA function as it pertains to disease onset; however, in order to fully understand miRNA’s role in a disease, it is necessary to detect the expression levels of these small molecules. The most widely used miRNA detection method is Northern blotting, which is considered as the standard of miRNA detection methods. This method, however, is time-consuming and has low sensitivity. This has led to an increase in the amount of detection methods available. These detection methods are either solid phase, occurring on a solid support, or solution phase, occurring in solution. While the solid-phase methods are adaptable to high-throughput screening and possess higher sensitivity than Northern blotting, they lack the ability for in vivo use and are often time-consuming. The solution-phase methods are advantageous in that they can be performed in vivo, are very sensitive, and are rapid; however, they cannot be applied in high-throughput settings. Although there are multiple detection methods available, including microarray technology, luminescence-based assays, electrochemical assays, etc., there is still much work to be done regarding miRNA detection. The current gaps of miRNA detection include the ability to perform multiplex, sensitive detection of miRNA with single-nucleotide specificity along with the standardization of these new methods. Current miRNA detection methods, gaps in these methods, miRNA therapeutic options, and the future outlook of miRNA detection are presented here.     

The submicro determination of carbon,hydrogen and nitrogen by a gas-chromatographic method

A method for the determination of carbon, hydrogen and nitrogen in organic samples weighing 40–80 μg is described. The sample is decomposed conventionally in a helium stream and the water formed is converted to acetylene. Nitrogen, carbon dioxide and acetylene are then separated on a silica-gel column, and the acetylene is burned to carbon dioxide by passage through copper oxide at 900° because the acetylene peak itself is not easily measured. Water from the second combustion is removed on silica gel and the three peaks emerging are measured by means of a micro thermistor cell. The standard deviations obtained for acetanilide are 0.31% for carbon, 0.28% for hydrogen and 0.11% for nitrogen. Results for other compounds are given and the parameters relevant to precision are discussed.     

Emulsion polymerization. I. Recalculation and extension of the Smith-Ewart theory

The most important assumptions underlying the Smith-Ewart theory are that the locus of chain propagation is the monomer-swollen latex particle, polymeric chains are initiated by radicals entering from the water phase into the particles, chain termination is an instantaneous reaction between two radicals within one particle, and particles are nucleated by radicals absorbed into monomer-swollen soap micelles. Right or wrong, these and other assumptions used by Smith and Ewart are retained in this paper. The newly derived and experimentally verifiable equations contain only such parameters which can be determined by experiments not involving emulsion polymerization. The proportionality constant between the particle number and the appropriate powers of soap and initiator concentrations is defined in terms of these independent parameters. Absolute rate equations are presented for the intervals before and after the completion of particle nucleation. To calculate these rates it is not necessary to have prior knowledge of the experimental particle number. The conversion at which particle nucleation is complete is calculated. The molecular weight is defined in terms of independent parameters. Predictions are made for the particle size distribution. It is shown that the validity of the theory is confined to specifiable intervals of conversion, to a certain range of monomer/water ratio, and to soap concentrations whose upper and lower limits are given.     

Ab initio study of bonding trends among cyanamidophosphates (

Ab initio calculations on the experimentally known anions [POn(NCN)4-n]3- are used to show that intramolecular forces are sufficient to determine their existence and structure. Structures are predicted for the analogous cyanamidosulphates and perchlorates. If one of the oxygens of the XO4q group is replaced by nitrogen or fluorine, further new anions are obtained. An example is NSO3(3)-. Remarkably, the NArO3- anion is predicted to have strong inner bonding and is, together with ArO4, a candidate for an argon species.