Structure of the liquid-crystal ferrielectric phases as determined by ellipsometry

The unit cell structures of two ferrielectric liquid-crystal phases are determined from ellipsometric studies of freestanding films in a nondistorting rotatable electric field. A highly biaxial mode with out-of-plane distortions describes all of the data from two different compounds. Qualitative and quantitative features of the data rule out alternate models. We also present a detailed explanation for apparent inconsistencies between previous resonant x-ray and optical experiments.     

In situ electron microscopy study of the thermal motion of liquid lead nanoparticles in thin aluminum foils

The kinetics of thermal motion of liquid lead nanoparticles in thin aluminum foils has been investigated in situ by transmission electron microscopy. Dependences of the diffusion coefficient of particles on temperature and particle size have been obtained. The results of the investigations can be interpreted on the assumption that the mobility of particles is controlled by the nucleation of steps on {111} faces of their surface.     

Kv1.1 null mice have enlarged hippocampus and ventral cortex

Background  

Mutations in the Shaker-like voltage-gated potassium channel Kv1.1 are known to cause episodic ataxia type 1 and temporal lobe epilepsy. Mice that express a malfunctional, truncated Kv1.1 (BALB/cByJ-Kv1.1 ^mceph/mceph ) show a markedly enlarged hippocampus and ventral cortex in adulthood.     

Phospha-Michael additions to activated internal alkenes: steric and electronic effects

The addition of P(O)-H bonds to internal alkenes has been accomplished under solvent-free conditions without the addition of a catalyst or radical initiator. Using a prototypical secondary phosphine oxide, a range of substrates including cinnamates, crotonates, coumarins, sulfones, and chalcones were successfully functionalized. Highly activated acceptors such as isopropylidenemalononitrile and ethyl 2-cyano-3-methyl-2-butenoate underwent the phospha-Michael reaction upon simple trituration of the reagents at room temperature, whereas less activated substrates such as ethyl cinnamate and methyl crotonate required heating (>150 °C) in a microwave reactor to achieve significant consumption of the starting alkenes. For the latter alkenes, a competing reaction involving disproportionation of the ditolylphosphine oxide into ditolylphosphinic acid and ditolylphosphine was observed at the high temperatures needed to promote the addition reaction.     

Synthesis, characterization and dioxygen reactivity of copper(I) complexes with glycoligands

A new family of copper(I) complexes with "glycoligands" containing a central saccharide scaffold, with 2-picolyl ether groups or 2-picolylamine or N-imidazolylamine groups, has been prepared and characterized. For this purpose, the following tetradentate ligands have been synthesized: methyl 2,3-di-O-(2-picolyl)-alpha-D-lyxofuranoside (L1), 1,5-anhydro-2-deoxy-3,4-di-O-(2-picolyl)-d-galactitol (L2), 5-(amino-N-(2-salicyl))-5-deoxy-1,2-O-isopropylidene-3-O-(2-picolyl)-alpha-D-xylofuranose (L3), and 5-(amino-N-(2-salicyl))-5-deoxy-1,2-O-isopropylidene-3-O-(methylimidazol-2-yl)-alpha-D-xylofuranose (L4). The ligands and the complexes were characterized by elemental analysis, IR, 1H and 13C NMR spectroscopies, ESI mass spectrometry, and cyclic voltammetry. Collaterally with the experimental work, HF-DFT(B3LYP/6-31G*) computations were performed to obtain additional structural information. The Cu(I) complexes are found to be pentacoordinated. The redox properties and the O2-reactivity of the Cu(I)Ln complexes have been studied. Reactions of Cu(I) complexes with dioxygen in ethanol yield stable Cu(II) complexes as confirmed by UV-visible spectrophotometry and EPR spectroscopy.     

AutoShim: empirically corrected scoring functions for quantitative docking with a crystal structure and IC50 training data

It has been notoriously difficult to develop general all-purpose scoring functions for high-throughput docking that correlate with measured binding affinity. As a practical alternative, AutoShim uses the program Magnet to add point-pharmacophore like "shims" to the binding site of each protein target. The pharmacophore shims are weighted by partial least-squares (PLS) regression, adjusting the all-purpose scoring function to reproduce IC 50 data, much as the shims in an NMR magnet are weighted to optimize the field for a better spectrum. This dramatically improves the affinity predictions on 25% of the compounds held out at random. An iterative procedure chooses the best pose during the process of shim parametrization. This method reproducibly converges to a consistent solution, regardless of starting pose, in just 2-4 iterations, so these robust models do not overtrain. Sets of complex multifeature shims, generated by a recursive partitioning method, give the best activity predictions, but these are difficult to interpret when designing new compounds. Sets of simpler single-point pharmacophores still predict affinity reasonably well and clearly indicate the molecular interactions producing effective binding. The pharmacophore requirements are very reproducible, irrespective of the compound sets used for parametrization, lending confidence to the predictions and interpretations. The automated procedure does require a training set of experimental compounds but otherwise adds little extra time over conventional docking.     

Ultrafast spectroscopy of the uranium(IV) and thorium(IV) bis(ketimide) complexes (C5Me5)2An[-N=C(Ph)(CH2Ph)]2 (An = Th, U)

Ultrafast pump-probe spectroscopic studies have been performed on (C 5Me 5) 2U[- N=C(Ph)(CH 2Ph)] 2 and (C 5Me 5) 2Th[- N=C(Ph)(CH 2Ph)] 2 including, for the uranium complex, the first direct measurement of dynamics of electronic deactivation within a 5f-electron manifold. Evidence has been found for strong coupling between the electronic ground state and the f-electron manifold which dominates the dynamics of the excited states of the bis(ketimide) uranium complex. These also demonstrate strong singlet-f manifold coupling, which assists in the deactivation of the photoexcited state of the uranium complex, and provide information on intersystem crossing and internal conversion processes in both complexes.     

Stress-energy tensor for a massless spin 1/2 field in static black hole spacetimes

The stress-energy tensor for the massless spin 1/2 field is numerically computed outside and on the event horizons of both charged and uncharged static nonrotating black holes, corresponding to the Schwarzschild, Reissner-Nordstr?m, and extreme Reissner-Nordstr?m solutions of Einstein's equations. The field is assumed to be in a thermal state at the black hole temperature. Comparison is made between the numerical results and previous analytic approximations for the stress-energy tensor in these spacetimes. For the Schwarzschild (charge zero) solution, it is shown that the stress energy differs even in sign from the analytic approximation. For the Reissner-Nordstr?m and extreme Reissner-Nordstr?m solutions, divergences predicted by the analytic approximations are shown not to exist.