Dynamical Bonding Driving Mixed Valency in a Metal Boride

Samarium hexaboride is an anomaly, having many exotic and seemingly mutually incompatible properties. It was proposed to be a mixed‐valent semiconductor, and later a topological Kondo insulator, and yet has a Fermi surface despite being an insulator. We propose a new and unified understanding of SmB₆ centered on the hitherto unrecognized dynamical bonding effect: the coexistence of two Sm?B bonding modes within SmB₆, corresponding to different oxidation states of the Sm. The mixed valency arises in SmB₆ from thermal population of these distinct minima enabled by motion of B. Our model simultaneously explains the thermal valence fluctuations, appearance of magnetic Fermi surface, excess entropy at low temperatures, pressure‐induced phase transitions, and related features in Raman spectra and their unexpected dependence on temperature and boron isotope.     

Design and Synthesis of a New Family of Fluorinated Liquid Crystals

A convenient and simple three‐step pathway to the new family of CF₂CF₂S‐bridged alkanes and CF₂S‐, CF₂O‐bridged alkenes and alkynes was elaborated by using catalytic olefination reaction as a key step of the synthetic sequence. The obtained compounds revealed attractive liquid crystalline characteristics.     

Stereochemical study of the sterically crowded phenylselanylalkenes by means of 77Se?1H spin–spin coupling constants

Stereochemical study of five sterically crowded phenylselanylalkenes obtained via the hydroselenation of either terminal or internal alkynes with benzeneselenol catalyzed by the nanosized Ni complexes has been carried out based on the experimental HMBC measurements and theoretical second order palarization propagator approach (SOPPA) calculations of their ⁷⁷Se? ¹H spin–spin coupling constants across double bond in combination with the energy‐based theoretical conformational analysis performed at the MP2/6‐311G** level. It has been found that studied phenylselanylalkenes adopt mainly skewed s‐cis conformation with the noticeable out‐of‐plane deviations of the phenylselanyl and phenyl groups. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Synthesis of β,γ-unsaturated primary amides from α,β-unsaturated acids and investigation of the mechanism

α,β-Unsaturated acids, through their acid chlorides, react with tritylamine in the presence of triethylamine under mild conditions, to afford in high yield and high regioselectivity the corresponding β,γ-unsaturated tritylamides. Detritylation with TFA generates quantitatively β,γ-unsaturated primary amides. An investigation of this deconjugative isomerization was performed.     

Nonparametric estimation for i.i.d. Gaussian continuous time moving average models

Statistical Inference for Stochastic Processes - We consider a Gaussian continuous time moving average model $$X(t)=\int _0^t a(t-s)dW(s)$$ where W is a standard Brownian motion and a(.) a...     

Investigating the interactions of the first 17 amino acid residues of Huntingtin with lipid vesicles using mass spectrometry and molecular dynamics

The first 17 amino acid residues of Huntingtin protein (Nt17 of htt) are thought to play an important role in the protein's function; Nt17 is one of two membrane binding domains in htt. In this study the binding ability of Nt17 peptide with vesicles comprised of two subclasses of phospholipids is studied using electrospray ionization ‐ mass spectrometry (ESI‐MS) and molecular dynamics (MD) simulations. Overall, the peptide is shown to have a greater propensity to interact with vesicles of phosphatidylcholine (PC) rather than phosphatidylethanolamine (PE) lipids. Mass spectra show an increase in lipid‐bound peptide adducts where the ordering of the number of such specie is 1,2‐dioleoyl‐sn‐glycero‐3‐phosphocholine (DOPC) > 1‐palmitoyl‐2‐oleoyl‐glycero‐3‐phosphocholine (POPC) > 1‐palmitoyl‐2‐oleoyl‐sn‐glycero‐3 phosphoethanolamine (POPE). MD simulations suggest that the compactness of the bilayer plays a role in governing peptide interactions. The peptide shows greater disruption of the DOPC bilayer order at the surface and interacts with the hydrophobic tails of lipid molecules via hydrophobic residues. Conversely, the POPE vesicle remains ordered and lipids display transient interactions with the peptide through the formation of hydrogen bonds with hydrophilic residues. The POPC system displays intermediate behavior with regard to the degree of peptide‐membrane interaction. Finally, the simulations suggest a helix stabilizing effect resulting from the interactions between hydrophobic residues and the lipid tails of the DOPC bilayer.