Temperature Dependence for the Relative Raman Cross Section of the Ammonia/Water Complex

The Raman spectra of aqueous ammonia solutions have been obtained between -40 and 25 degrees C. The Raman spectrum of neat water was also obtained at 25 degrees C and is characterized by two broad peaks observed at 3200 and 3400 cm(-1). The spectrum due to water is subtracted to determine the NH(3) spectrum at all temperatures. In ammonia-water solutions, the spectrum shows three features at measured displacements of 3250, 3316, and 3400 cm(-1). The feature at 3316 cm(-1) is assigned to the Q branch of the symmetric stretch. The broad, weak features at 3250 and 3400 cm(-1), previously assigned to rotational bands, are assigned to combination bands. The NH(3) combination bands are assigned by comparing with sum frequency generation (SFG) experiments, monitoring changes with temperature, and analyzing the polarization data. The rotational structure of the Q band is also discussed. As the temperature is lowered from 25 to -40 degrees C, an increase in the Raman intensity is observed for all bands. The relative Raman scattering cross section is determined from the numerically integrated area of the NH(3) Q branch at each temperature. Copyright 2001 Academic Press.     

Halogen Bonding: An Interim Discussion

Halogen bonding is a noncovalent interaction that is receiving rapidly increasing attention because of its significance in biological systems and its importance in the design of new materials in a variety of areas, for example, electronics, nonlinear optical activity, and pharmaceuticals. The interactions can be understood in terms of electrostatics/polarization and dispersion; they involve a region of positive electrostatic potential on a covalently bonded halogen and a negative site, such as the lone pair of a Lewis base. The positive potential, labeled a σ hole, is on the extension of the covalent bond to the halogen, which accounts for the characteristic near‐linearity of halogen bonding. In many instances, the lateral sides of the halogen have negative electrostatic potentials, allowing it to also interact favorably with positive sites. In this discussion, after looking at some of the experimental observations of halogen bonding, we address the origins of σ holes, the factors that govern the magnitudes of their electrostatic potentials, and the properties of the resulting complexes with negative sites. The relationship of halogen and hydrogen bonding is examined. We also point out that σ‐hole interactions are not limited to halogens, but can also involve covalently bonded atoms of Groups IV–VI. Examples of applications in biological/medicinal chemistry and in crystal engineering are mentioned, taking note that halogen bonding can be “tuned” to fit various requirements, that is, strength of interaction, steric factors, and so forth.     

Real-Time Monitoring of the Mechanical Properties of a Soy Protein and Rubber Polymer during its Production Using Transient Infrared Spectroscopy

Soy protein–based polymers offer promising performance properties, but their characteristics are sensitively dependent on production conditions, so on-line monitoring could help provide the needed control during production. Mid-infrared spectroscopy combined with partial least squares offer the needed analysis, but the opacity of many materials in the mid-infrared range limits its conventional application. Transient infrared spectroscopy is a method of acquiring mid-infrared spectra from moving streams in real time that avoids the opacity problem. We apply transient infrared spectroscopy to a polymer of soy protein and polyisoprene-graft-maleic anhydride–modified natural rubber during its compounding extrusion to measure tensile strength and Young's modulus.     

Computational analysis of relative stabilities of polyazine N-oxides

There is considerable interest in polyazine N-oxides as potential frameworks for energetic compounds with relatively high enthalpies of formation and crystal densities. The N⁺→O^? linkages, if appropriately located, may diminish the destabilization associated with nitrogen catenation. We have computationally characterized 40 N-oxides of the isomeric diazines, triazines, and tetrazines in terms of their geometries, relative energies, and (for a representative selection) electrostatic potentials. The presence of N⁺→O^? linkages does partially counteract the destabilizing effects of nitrogen catenation, although the isomers with complete catenation remain the least stable. The stabilizing influence of N⁺→O^? groups, and the accompanying changes in bond lengths, can be understood in terms of resonance charge delocalization to the polyazine rings. The N(O)–N(O) bonds between nitrogens that both bear oxygens tend to be relatively weak. The electrostatic potentials above the polyazine rings become increasingly positive as there are more nitrogens and oxygens; eventually they are positive above all of the carbons and nitrogens and possibly even the oxygens, with negative regions only on the peripheries of the molecules. However, the nitrogens that bear oxygens always have more positive potentials than those that do not.     

The Effects of a Third Generation Combined Oral Contraceptive Pill on the Classical Singing Voice

The success of professional operatic singers depends upon the quality of their vocal mechanism. This is known to be sensitive to changes in the endocrine environment. Despite a widespread belief among singers that vocal quality changes according to the stage of the menstrual cycle, this has received little attention. In particular, the possibility that use of the contraceptive pill might stabilize vocal quality by "dampening" hormonal fluctuations has not previously been studied systematically. Here, we show that drospirenone containing oral contraceptive pill (Yasmin, Schering AG, West Sussex, UK) with antiandrogenic and antimineralocorticoid properties demonstrates a significant reduction in the irregularity of the pattern of vibration of the vocal folds during the performance of highly trained classical singers. This study constitutes the first double blind, randomized placebo controlled trial to assess the effects of the contraceptive pill on the patterns of vibration of the vocal folds during the performance of Western classical singing repertoire.     

The role of cooling rate in crystallization-driven block copolymer self-assembly

Self-assembly of crystalline-coil block copolymers (BCPs) in selective solvents is often carried out by heating the mixture until the sample appears to dissolve and then allowing the solution to cool back to room temperature. In self-seeding experiments, some crystallites persist during sample annealing and nucleate the growth of core-crystalline micelles upon cooling. There is evidence in the literature that the nature of the self-assembled structures formed is independent of the annealing time at a particular temperature. There are, however, no systematic studies of how the rate of cooling affects self-assembly. We examine three systems based upon poly(ferrocenyldimethylsilane) BCPs that generated uniform micelles under typical conditions where cooling took pace on the 1–2 h time scale. For example, several of the systems generated elongated 1D micelles of uniform length under these slow cooling conditions. When subjected to rapid cooling (on the time scale of a few minutes or faster), branched structures were obtained. Variation of the cooling rate led to a variation in the size and degree of branching of some of the structures examined. These changes can be explained in terms of the high degree of supersaturation that occurs when unimer solutions at high temperature are suddenly cooled. Enhanced nucleation, seed aggregation, and selective growth of the species of lowest solubility contribute to branching. Cooling rate becomes another tool for manipulating crystallization-driven self-assembly and controlling micelle morphologies.

In the self-assembly of crystalline-coil block copolymers in solution, heating followed by different cooling rates can lead to different structures.     

Enhanced Karush–Kuhn–Tucker condition and weaker constraint qualifications

In this paper we study necessary optimality conditions for nonsmooth optimization problems with equality, inequality and abstract set constraints. We derive the enhanced Fritz John condition which contains some new information even in the smooth case than the classical enhanced Fritz John condition. From this enhanced Fritz John condition we derive the enhanced Karush–Kuhn–Tucker condition and introduce the associated pseudonormality and quasinormality condition. We prove that either pseudonormality or quasinormality with regularity on the constraint functions and the set constraint implies the existence of a local error bound. Finally we give a tighter upper estimate for the Fréchet subdifferential and the limiting subdifferential of the value function in terms of quasinormal multipliers which is usually a smaller set than the set of classical normal multipliers. In particular we show that the value function of a perturbed problem is Lipschitz continuous under the perturbed quasinormality condition which is much weaker than the classical normality condition.     

Using chemical probes to investigate the sub-inhibitory effects of azithromycin

The antibacterial drug azithromycin has clinically beneficial effects at sub-inhibitory concentrations for the treatment of conditions characterized by chronic Pseudomonas aeruginosa infection, such as cystic fibrosis. These effects are, in part, the result of inhibition of bacterial biofilm formation. Herein, the efficient synthesis of azithromycin in 4 steps from erythromycin and validation of the drug's ability to inhibit biofilm formation at sub-MIC (minimum inhibitory concentration) values are reported. Furthermore, the synthesis of immobilized and biotin-tagged azithromycin analogues is described. These chemical probes were used in pull-down assays in an effort to identify azithromycin's binding partners in vivo. Results from these assays revealed, as expected, mainly ribosomal-related protein binding partners, suggesting that this is the primary target of the drug. This was further confirmed by studies using a P. aeruginosa strain containing plasmid-encoded ermC, which expresses a protein that modifies 23S rRNA and so blocks macrolide entry to the ribosome. In this strain, no biofilm inhibition was observed. This work supports the hypothesis that the sub-inhibitory effects of azithromycin are mediated through the ribosome. Moreover, the synthesis of these chemical probes, and proof of their utility, is of value in global target identification in P. aeruginosa and other species.