Comparative study of holographic recording in cholesteric and nematic azo-containing side-chain polymers

For the first time a comparative study of holographic recording in planarly oriented films of nematic and cholesteric azobenzene-containing polymers was performed. The influence of temperature and light intensity on the values of diffraction efficiencies of holographic gratings was investigated. The kinetics of grating relaxation at different temperatures was studied. It was shown that the helical supramolecular structure of cholesteric copolymer causes a significant decrease of the diffraction efficiency in comparison with the one observed for the nematic state of the homopolymer.     

Crystallographic report: Crystal structure of 1‐bromo‐1′‐[(2S)‐N‐(1‐hydroxy‐3‐methylbutane‐2‐yl)]‐ferroceneamide

For the unsymmetrical title compound, 1‐bromo‐1′‐[(2S)‐N‐(1‐hydroxy‐3‐methylbutane‐2‐yl)]‐ferroceneamide, two independent molecules were found in the asymmetric unit. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Exploration of the Crystal Structure and Thermal and Spectroscopic Properties of Monoclinic Praseodymium Sulfate Pr2(SO4)3

Praseodymium sulfate was obtained by the precipitation method and the crystal structure was determined by Rietveld analysis. Pr₂(SO₄)₃ is crystallized in the monoclinic structure, space group C2/c, with cell parameters a = 21.6052 (4), b = 6.7237 (1) and c = 6.9777 (1) Å, β = 107.9148 (7)°, Z = 4, V = 964.48 (3) ų (T = 150 °C). The thermal expansion of Pr₂(SO₄)₃ is strongly anisotropic. As was obtained by XRD measurements, all cell parameters are increased on heating. However, due to a strong increase of the monoclinic angle β, there is a direction of negative thermal expansion. In the argon atmosphere, Pr₂(SO₄)₃ is stable in the temperature range of T = 30–870 °C. The kinetics of the thermal decomposition process of praseodymium sulfate octahydrate Pr₂(SO₄)₃·8H₂O was studied as well. The vibrational properties of Pr₂(SO₄)₃ were examined by Raman and Fourier-transform infrared absorption spectroscopy methods. The band gap structure of Pr₂(SO₄)₃ was evaluated by ab initio calculations, and it was found that the valence band top is dominated by the p electrons of oxygen ions, while the conduction band bottom is formed by the d electrons of Pr³⁺ ions. The exact position of ZPL is determined via PL and PLE spectra at 77 K to be at 481 nm, and that enabled a correct assignment of luminescent bands. The maximum luminescent band in Pr₂(SO₄)₃ belongs to the ³P₀ → ³F₂ transition at 640 nm.     

Novel Inhibitors of 2′-O-Methyltransferase of the SARS-CoV-2 Coronavirus

The COVID-19 pandemic is still affecting many people worldwide and causing a heavy burden to global health. To eliminate the disease, SARS-CoV-2, the virus responsible for the pandemic, can be targeted in several ways. One of them is to inhibit the 2′-O-methyltransferase (nsp16) enzyme that is crucial for effective translation of viral RNA and virus replication. For methylation of substrates, nsp16 utilizes S-adenosyl methionine (SAM). Binding of a small molecule in the protein site where SAM binds can disrupt the synthesis of viral proteins and, as a result, the replication of the virus. Here, we performed high-throughput docking into the SAM-binding site of nsp16 for almost 40 thousand structures, prepared for compounds from three libraries: Enamine Coronavirus Library, Enamine Nucleoside Mimetics Library, and Chemdiv Nucleoside Analogue Library. For the top scoring ligands, semi-empirical quantum-chemical calculations were performed, to better estimate protein–ligand binding enthalpy. Relying upon the calculated binding energies and predicted docking poses, we selected 21 compounds for experimental testing.     

Analysis of time-of-flight distributions under pulsed laser ablation in vacuum based on the DSMC calculations

A theoretical study of the time-of-flight (TOF) distributions under pulsed laser ablation has been performed. 2D simulations of pulsed evaporation of atoms into vacuum on the base of the direct simulation Monte Carlo (DSMC) method have been carried out. It is found that for large evaporating spots (when the spot radius exceeds the initial plume length by a factor of five) the TOF distributions practically do not change with the spot radius variation. Moreover, it is shown that such distributions can be obtained from 1D calculations. Thus, in the frames of 1D approach, the TOF distribution is a function only of the number of the evaporated monolayers, but not of the spot radius. The shape of the TOF distribution is shown to strongly depend on the amount of the evaporated matter. Based on the calculated TOF distributions, dependence of the particle kinetic energy on the number of the evaporated monolayers has been obtained. To verify the theoretical results, experimental data on laser ablation of niobium and mercury have been used, which confirm the obtained dependences. The obtained results allow estimating the irradiated surface temperature from the TOF distributions for monatomic neutral gas.     

Observation of the chaotic spin-wave soliton trains in magnetic films

The transition from stationary to chaotic spin-wave soliton trains has been observed. The experiment utilized cw excitation of envelope solitons through self-modulation instability of spin waves. By increasing the spin-wave power, the secondary self-modulation instability succeeded the primary modulation instability, resulting in after-modulation of the soliton train amplitude. Further increase of the spin-wave power led to development of the higher-order instabilities, resulting in formation of the chaotic soliton train.     

Uncertainty and Certainty Relations for Pauli Observables in Terms of Renyi Entropies of Order α∈ （0; 1]

We obtain uncertainty and certainty relations of state-independent form for the three Paufi observables with use of the Renyi entropies of order α∈ （0; 1]. It is shown that these entropic bounds are tight in the sense that they are always reached with certain pure states. A new result is the condition for equality in Renyi-entropy uncertainty relations for the Pauli observables. Upper entropic bounds in the pure-state case are also novel. Combining the presented bounds leads to a band, in which the rescaled average Renyi a-entropy ranges for a pure measured state. A width of this band is compared with the Tsallis formulation derived previously.