A New Method for Coarse-Grained Elastic Normal-Mode Analysis

In this paper, we report a new method for coarse-grained elastic normal-mode analysis. The purpose is to overcome a long-standing problem in the conventional analysis called the tip effect that makes the motional patterns (eigenvectors) of some low-frequency modes irrational. The new method retains the merits of a conventional method such as not requiring lengthy initial energy minimization, which always distorts structures, and also delivers substantially more accurate low-frequency modes with no tip effect for proteins of any size. This improvement of modes is crucial for certain types of applications such as structural refinement or normal-mode-based sampling.     

A multireference configuration interaction method based on the separated electron pair wave functions

A multireference configurational interaction method based on the separated electron pair (SEP) wave functions, SEP‐CI approach, has been developed as an approximation to the traditional CASSCF method. It differs from the CASSCF method in that active orbitals are obtained from the SEP wave function without further optimization in the subsequent CI calculations, and the active space is automatically constructed according to the occupation coefficients of SEP natural orbitals. These features make the present SEP‐CI method computationally much less demanding than the CASSCF method. The applicability of the SEP‐CI method is illustrated with sample calculations on the insertion reaction of BeH₂ and dissociation energies of LiH, BH, FH, H₂O, and N₂. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Comput Chem 27: 39–47, 2006     

CuCl-catalyzed cleavage of S-triphenylmethyl thioether: a new detritylation method for thio group

A new method for the deprotection of trityl thioethers using CuCl as the catalyst under ultrasonic conditions is described.     

Boosting the synthesis of value-added aromatics directly from syngas via a Cr2O3 and Ga doped zeolite capsule catalyst

Even though the transformation of syngas into aromatics has been realized via a methanol-mediated tandem process, the low product yield is still the bottleneck, limiting the industrial application of this technology. Herein, a tailor-made zeolite capsule catalyst with Ga doping and SiO₂ coating was combined with the methanol synthesis catalyst Cr₂O₃ to boost the synthesis of value-added aromatics, especially para-xylene, from syngas. Multiple characterization studies, control experiments, and density functional theory (DFT) calculation results clarified that Ga doped zeolites with strong CO adsorption capability facilitated the transformation of the reaction intermediate methanol by optimizing the first C–C coupling step under a high-pressure CO atmosphere, thereby driving the reaction forward for aromatics synthesis. This work not only reveals the synergistic catalytic network in the tandem process but also sheds new light on principles for the rational design of a catalyst in terms of oriented conversion of syngas.

The single-pass conversion of syngas into para-xylene was realized using a bifunctional catalyst Cr₂O₃/Ga-ZSM-5@SiO₂. The Ga species facilitates the methanol consumption process by C–C coupling optimization, enhancing the yield of the target aromatics.     

氢气对氯硅烷功能化非共轭α,ω-双烯烃和丙烯共聚物链结构的影响

基于Ziegler-Natta催化剂的氯硅烷功能化非共轭α,ω-双烯烃与丙烯共聚,在水的引发下脱水缩合可有效地形成长支链结构的聚丙烯树脂.而氢气常作为丙烯聚合中的链转移剂,调控聚丙烯的分子量,基于此,研究了氢气对氯硅烷功能化非共轭α,ω-双烯烃与丙烯共聚物链结构的影响.核磁共振氢谱(~1H-NMR)测试结果表明,氢气抑制了氯硅烷功能化非共轭α,ω-双烯烃的插入,随着氢气用量的增加,共聚物分子链中端基乙烯基含量由0.12 mol%降低到0.05 mol%.熔体流变行为测试结果显示,聚合物熔体的储能模量、损耗模量和零剪切黏度均随着氢气用量增加而降低,这主要是由于相对分子质量减小和长支链密度的减少.     

Carbohydrate-binding module O-mannosylation alters binding selectivity to cellulose and lignin

Improved understanding of the effect of protein glycosylation is expected to provide the foundation for the design of protein glycoengineering strategies. In this study, we examine the impact of O-glycosylation on the binding selectivity of a model Family 1 carbohydrate-binding module (CBM), which has been shown to be one of the primary sub-domains responsible for non-productive lignin binding in multi-modular cellulases. Specifically, we examine the relationship between glycan structure and the binding specificity of the CBM to cellulose and lignin substrates. We find that the glycosylation pattern of the CBM exhibits a strong influence on the binding affinity and the selectivity between both cellulose and lignin. In addition, the large set of binding data collected allows us to examine the relationship between binding affinity and the correlation in motion between pairs of glycosylation sites. Our results suggest that glycoforms displaying highly correlated motion in their glycosylation sites tend to bind cellulose with high affinity and lignin with low affinity. Taken together, this work helps lay the groundwork for future exploitation of glycoengineering as a tool to improve the performance of industrial enzymes.

Improved understanding of the effect of protein glycosylation is expected to provide the foundation for the design of protein glycoengineering strategies.

The cell walls of terrestrial plants primarily comprise the polysaccharides cellulose, hemicellulose, and pectin, as well as the heterogeneous aromatic polymer, lignin. In nature, carbohydrates derived from plant polysaccharides provide a massive carbon and energy source for biomass-degrading fungi, bacteria, and archaea, which together are the primary organisms that recycle plant matter and are a critical component of the global carbon cycle. Across the various environments in which these microbes break down lignocellulose, a few known enzymatic and chemical systems have evolved to deconstruct polysaccharides to soluble sugars.^1–6 These natural systems are, in several cases, being evaluated for industrial use to produce sugars for further conversion into renewable biofuels and chemicals.From an industrial perspective, overcoming biomass recalcitrance to cost-effectively produce soluble intermediates, including sugars for further upgrading remains the main challenge in biomass conversion. Lignin, the evolution of which in planta provided a significant advantage for terrestrial plants to mitigate microbial attack, is now widely recognized as a primary cause of biomass recalcitrance.⁷ Chemical and/or biological processing scenarios of lignocellulose have been evaluated⁸ and several approaches have been scaled to industrial biorefineries to date. Many biomass conversion technologies overcome recalcitrance by partially or wholly removing lignin from biomass using thermochemical pretreatment or fractionation. This approach enables easier polysaccharide access for carbohydrate-active enzymes and/or microbes. There are however, several biomass deconstruction approaches that employ enzymes or microbes with whole, unpretreated biomass.^9,10 In most realistic biomass conversion scenarios wherein enzymes or microbes are used to depolymerize polysaccharides, native or residual lignin remains.^11,12 It is important to note that lignin can bind and sequester carbohydrate-active enzymes, which in turn can affect conversion performance.¹³Therefore, efforts aimed at improving cellulose binding selectivity relative to lignin have emerged as major thrusts in cellulase studies.^14–25 Multiple reports in the past a few years have made exciting new contributions to our collective understanding of how fungal glycoside hydrolases, which are among the most well-characterized cellulolytic enzymes given their importance to cellulosic biofuels production, bind to lignin from various pretreatments.^15,17 Taken together, these studies have demonstrated that the Family 1 carbohydrate-binding modules (CBMs) often found in fungal cellulases are the most relevant sub-domains for non-productive binding to lignin,^15,17,20,26 likely due to the hydrophobic face of these CBMs that is known to be also responsible for cellulose binding (Fig. 1).²⁷Open in a separate windowFig. 1Model of glycosylated CBM binding the surface of a cellulose crystal. Glycans are shown in green with oxygen atoms in red, tyrosines known to be critical to binding shown in purple, and disulfide bonds Cys8–Cys25 and Cys19–Cys35 in yellow.Furthermore, several studies have been published recently using protein engineering of Family 1 CBMs to improve CBM binding selectivity to cellulose with respect to lignin. Of particular note, Strobel et al. screened a large library of point mutations in both the Family 1 CBM and the linker connecting the catalytic domain (CD) and CBM.^21,22 These studies demonstrated that several mutations in the CBM and one in the linker led to improved cellulose binding selectivity compared to lignin. The emerging picture is that the CBM-cellulose interaction, which occurs mainly as a result of stacking between the flat, hydrophobic CBM face (which is decorated with aromatic residues) and the hydrophobic crystal face of cellulose I, is also likely the main driving force in the CBM-lignin interaction given the strong potential for aromatic–aromatic and hydrophobic interactions.Alongside amino acid changes, modification of O-glycosylation has recently emerged as a potential tool in engineering fungal CBMs, which Harrison et al. demonstrated to be O-glycosylated.^28–31 In particular, we have revealed that the O-mannosylation of a Family 1 CBM of Trichoderma reesei cellobiohydrolase I (TrCel7A) can lead to significant enhancements in the binding affinity towards bacterial microcrystalline cellulose (BMCC).^30,32,33 This observation, together with the fact that glycans have the potential to form both hydrophilic and hydrophobic interactions with other molecules, led us to hypothesize that glycosylation may have a unique role in the binding selectivity of Family 1 CBMs to cellulose relative to lignin and as such, glycoengineering may be exploited to improve the industrial performance of these enzymes. To test this hypothesis, in the present study, we systematically probed the effects of glycosylation on CBM binding affinity for a variety of lignocellulose-derived cellulose and lignin substrates and investigated routes to computationally predict the binding properties of different glycosylated CBMs.     

Determination of Biodegradation Process of Benzene, Toluene, Ethylbenzene and Xylenes in Seabed Sediment by Purge and Trap Gas Chromatography

Benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, and xylenes (BTEX) are commonly found in crude oil and are used in geochemical investigations as direct indicators of the presence of oil and gas. BTEX are easily volatile and can be degraded by microorganisms, which affect their precise measurement seriously. A method for determining the biodegradation process of BTEX in seabed sediment using dynamic headspace (purge and trap) gas chromatography with a photoionization detector (PID) was developed, which had a detection limit of 7.3–13.2 ng L^?1 and a recovery rate of 91.6–95.0%. The decrease in the concentration of BTEX components was monitored in seabed sediment samples, which was caused by microorganism biodegradation. The results of BTEX biodegradation process were of great significance in the collection, transportation, preservation, and measurement of seabed sediment samples in the geochemical investigations of oil and gas.     

氢化物石墨炉原子吸收光谱法应用研究——Ⅱ.超痕量汞的测定

本文使用涂金石墨管,自制氢化物石墨炉进样系统及连续流动氢化物发生器,直接测定了粮食,植物及水中的痕量汞。该法实用性强,线性范围宽,精密度好,准确度高。灵敏度为1.1ng/L,检出限(3σ)为0.8ng/L。     

Study of quasi-monodisperse In2O3 nanocrystals: synthesis and optical determination

In this communication, we report a successful synthesis of quasi-monodisperse In2O3 nanocrystals with high crystallinity in a high-temperature organic solution. The average size of nanocrystals can be tuned using a dynamic injection technique. TEM and XRD investigations indicate that each nanocrystal is a single crystal. The optical determination implies that the photoluminescence behavior of these In2O3 nanocrystals is different from that of the bulk, probably due to the combination of weak quantum-confinement-effects and the nature of high crystallinity in nanocrystals.     

Mild and efficient synthesis of (Z)-alpha-chloroalkylidene-beta-lactones via the PdCl2-catalyzed cyclocarbonylation of 2-alkynols

[reaction: see text] A mild and efficient methodology involving PdCl(2)-catalyzed cyclocarbonylation of 2-alkynols with CuCl(2) for the synthesis of (Z)-alpha-chloroalkylidene-beta-lactones was developed. Using the readily available optically active propargylic alcohols allows convenient synthesis of the corresponding (Z)-alpha-chloroalkylidene-beta-lactones with high ee values. cis-Chloropalladation was observed as the major pathway, which is unique as compared to the reported data.