The magnetic and electronic structure of vanadyl pyrophosphate from density functional theory

We have studied the magnetic structure of the high symmetry vanadyl pyrophosphate ((VO)(2)P(2)O(7), VOPO), focusing on the spin exchange couplings, using density functional theory (B3LYP) with the full three-dimensional periodicity. VOPO involves four distinct spin couplings: two larger couplings exist along the chain direction (a-axis), which we predict to be antiferromagnetic, J(OPO) = -156.8 K and J(O) = -68.6 K, and two weaker couplings appear along the c (between two layers) and b directions (between two chains in the same layer), which we calculate to be ferromagnetic, J(layer) = 19.2 K and J(chain) = 2.8 K. Based on the local density of states and the response of spin couplings to varying the cell parameter a, we found that J(OPO) originates from a super-exchange interaction through the bridging -O-P-O- unit. In contrast, J(O) results from a direct overlap of 3d(x(2)-y(2)) orbitals on two vanadium atoms in the same V(2)O(8) motif, making it very sensitive to structural fluctuations. Based on the variations in V-O bond length as a function of strain along a, we found that the V-O bonds of V-(OPO)(2)-V are covalent and rigid, whereas the bonds of V-(O)(2)-V are fragile and dative. These distinctions suggest that compression along the a-axis would have a dramatic impact on J(O), changing the magnetic structure and spin gap of VOPO. This result also suggests that assuming J(O) to be a constant over the range of 2-300 K whilst fitting couplings to the experimental magnetic susceptibility is an invalid method. Regarding its role as a catalyst, the bonding pattern suggests that O(2) can penetrate beyond the top layers of the VOPO surface, converting multiple V atoms from the +4 to +5 oxidation state, which seems crucial to explain the deep oxidation of n-butane to maleic anhydride.     

Thermodynamic investigations of methyl tert-butyl ether and water mixtures

Interactions between methyl tert-butyl ether (MTBE) and water have been investigated by scanning calorimetry, isothermal titration calorimetry, densitometry, IR-spectroscopy, and gas chromatography. The solubilization of MTBE in water at 25 °C at infinite dilution has ΔH° = -17.0 ± 0.6 kJ mol(-1); ΔS° = -80 ± 2 J mol(-1) K(-1); ΔC(p) = +332 ± 15 J mol(-1) K(-1); ΔV° = -18 ± 2 cm(3) mol(-1). The signs of these thermodynamic functions are consistent with hydrophobic interactions. The occurrence of hydrophobic interaction is further substantiated as IR absorption spectra of MTBE-water mixtures show that MTBE strengthens the hydrogen bond network of water. Solubilization of MTBE in water is exothermic whereas solubilization of water in MTBE is endothermic with ΔH° = +5.3 ± 0.6 kJ mol(-1). The negative mixing volume is explained by a large negative contribution due to size differences between water and MTBE and by a positive contribution due to changes in the water structure around MTBE. Henry's law constants, K(H), were determined from vapor pressure measurements of mixtures equilibrated at different temperatures. A van't Hoff analysis of K(H) gave ΔH(H)° = 50 ± 1 kJ mol(-1) and ΔS(H)° = 166 ± 5 J mol(-1) K(-1) for the solution to gas transfer. MTBE is excluded from the ice phase water upon freezing MTBE-water mixtures.     

Using inverted indices for accelerating LINGO calculations

The ever growing size of chemical databases calls for the development of novel methods for representing and comparing molecules. One such method called LINGO is based on fragmenting the SMILES string representation of molecules. Comparison of molecules can then be performed by calculating the Tanimoto coefficient, which is called LINGOsim when used on LINGO multisets. This paper introduces a verbose representation for storing LINGO multisets, which makes it possible to transform them into sparse fingerprints such that fingerprint data structures and algorithms can be used to accelerate queries. The previous best method for rapidly calculating the LINGOsim similarity matrix required specialized hardware to yield a significant speedup over existing methods. By representing LINGO multisets in the verbose representation and using inverted indices, it is possible to calculate LINGOsim similarity matrices roughly 2.6 times faster than existing methods without relying on specialized hardware.     

Multivariate density estimation using dimension reducing information and tail flattening transformations

We propose a nonparametric multiplicative bias corrected transformation estimator designed for heavy tailed data. The multiplicative correction is based on prior knowledge and has a dimension reducing effect at the same time as the original dimension of the estimation problem is retained. Adding a tail flattening transformation improves the estimation significantly-particularly in the tail-and provides significant graphical advantages by allowing the density estimation to be visualized in a simple way. The combined method is demonstrated on a fire insurance data set and in a data-driven simulation study.     

Equity-linked pension schemes with guarantees

This paper analyses the relationship between the level of a return guarantee in an equity-linked pension scheme and the proportion of an investor’s contribution needed to finance this guarantee. Three types of schemes are considered: investment guarantee, contribution guarantee and surplus participation. The evaluation of each scheme involves pricing an Asian option, for which relatively tight upper and lower bounds can be calculated in a numerically efficient manner.We find a negative (and for two contract specifications also concave) relationship between the participation in the surplus return of the investment strategy and the guarantee level in terms of a minimum rate of return. Furthermore, the introduction of the possibility of early termination of the contract (e.g. due to the death of the investor) has no qualitative and very little quantitative impact on this relationship.     

From water clustering to osmotic coefficients

Water activity is an important macroscopic property of aerosol particles and droplets in the atmosphere as well as aqueous solutions in many other fields of physical chemistry. This study focuses on relating water activity, described using osmotic coefficients, to the microscopic water structure in systems of atmospheric relevance, namely, aqueous solutions of each of the four electrolytes: NaCl, (NH(4))(2)SO(4), NH(4)Cl, and Na(2)SO(4). The osmotic coefficients of these compounds, as reported in literature based on thermodynamic measurements, decrease as a function of molality for dilute solutions and increase as a function of molality for concentrated solutions. At an intermediate molality, a minimum value of the osmotic coefficient is observed. We explain this behavior by describing osmotic coefficients as the product of two concentration-dependent effects: incomplete electrolyte dissociation and variations in the microphysical water structure. The degree of dissociation in electrolyte solutions can be obtained directly from literature or derived from reported pK values, and in this work the water structure is quantified using low-wavenumber Raman spectroscopy. We use the band at 180 cm(-1) in Raman spectra of aqueous electrolyte solutions, which has been assigned to the displacement of the central oxygen atom in a tetrahedral hydrogen bonding environment composed of five H(2)O units. The abundance of such translationally restricted water molecules is essential in describing the local microphysical structure of water, and the height of the band is used to estimate the amount of such translationally restricted water molecules in solution. We were able to qualitatively reproduce and explain literature values of osmotic coefficients for the four studied electrolytes. Our results indicate that the effect of electrolyte dissociation, which decreases as a function of molality, dominates in dilute solutions, whereas changes in water structure are more significant at higher concentrations.     

Separation of DNA‐containing organelles from Toxoplasma gondii by CZE

Toxoplasma gondii and other members of the family Apicomplexa have two organelles, in addition to the nucleus, that contain DNA. Herein is reported the separation of the DNA‐carrying organelles from T. gondii tachyzoites, i.e. the mitochondrion and the apicoplast, by CZE. The cells were stained with SYTO9, a dye that exhibit fluorescence when interacting with double stranded nucleic acids (e.g. DNA) and disrupted by nitrogen cavitation. Following careful removal of the heavier cellular material, the remaining lysate was injected on a CE instrument and the DNA‐containing organelles were detected by LIF. The mitochondrion had longer migration time than the apicoplast, and the migration times were comparable in the replicates. This method should potentially also work for other members of the Apicomplexa including Plasmodium falciparum.