Perthio- and perseleno-1,3-butadienes, -but-1-ene-3-ynes,and -[3]-cumulenes: one-step syntheses from 1,4-dilithio-1,3-butadiyne

[reaction: see text] Treatment of 1,4-dilithio-1,3-butadiyne (1) with dichalcogenides RSSR or RSeSeR affords dithio- and diseleno-1,3-butadiynes (2, 3), perthio- and perseleno-[3]-cumulenes (4, 5), perthio- and perseleno-1,3-butadienes (6, 7), and/or perthio- and perseleno-but-1-ene-3-ynes (8, 9). The products can be controlled by stoichiometry and temperature, by the presence or absence of oxygen, and by choice of the "R" group. By X-ray crystallography, hexa(methylthio)-1,3-butadiene is highly twisted, with a torsion angle [Phi(CCCC)] of 84.7 degrees and an elongated C(2)-C(3) distance of 1.484(3) A.     

Total synthesis of amaryllidaceae alkaloid buflavine

A concise synthesis of the amaryllidaceae alkaloid buflavine (1) and its regioisomer (2) involving sequential Meyers' biaryl coupling, enecarbamate formation, and hydrogenation followed by ultimate intramolecular reductive amination is presented.     

Effect of Enzyme Modification of Corn Grits on their Properties as an Adsorbent in a Skarstrom Pressure Swing Cycle Dryer

Corn grits have been tested as a desiccant in a pressure swing adsorption (PSA) system to produce dry air. Two sizes of unmodified corn grits were tested in the PSA system: 2.16 and 0.978 mm in diameter, which dried moist air to dew points of –42°C and –69°C, respectively. A modification technology has been developed for the corn grits that gives an increase in the operational adsorptive capacity in a pressure swing adsorption system, so that they remove as much moisture from air as molecular sieves at the same conditions. After modification, 2.16 mm corn grits dry moist air to a –56°C dew point and the 0.978 mm corn grits dry air to a –80°C dew point. The modification process creates surface modifications on the corn grits apparently making more adsorption sites easily available. The modification procedure increases the specific surface area of the grits and possibly decreases the crystallinity, which would make more hydroxyl groups available for adsorption of water. Possible applications of using corn grits in the pressure swing adsorption system include industrial gas dryers, sorptive cooling air conditioners, and recycling equipment for industrial solvents.     

PVM-AMBER: A parallel implementation of the AMBER molecular mechanics package for workstation clusters

A parallel version of the popular molecular mechanics package AMBER suitable for execution on workstation clusters has been developed. Computer-intensive portions of molecular dynamics or free-energy perturbation computations, such as nonbonded pair list generation or calculation of nonbonded energies and forces, are distributed across a collection of Unix workstations linked by Ethernet or FDDI connections. This parallel implementation utilizes the message-passing software PVM (Parallel Virtual Machine) from Oak Ridge National Laboratory to coordinate data exchange and processor synchronization. Test simulations performed for solvated peptide, protein, and lipid bilayer systems indicate that reasonable parallel efficiency (70–90%) and computational speedup (2–5 × serial computer runtimes) can be achieved with small workstation clusters (typically six to eight machines) for typical biomolecular simulation problems. PVM-AMBER is also easily and rapidly portable to different hardware platforms due to the availability of PVM for numerous computers. The current version of PVM-AMBER has been tested successfully on Silicon Graphics, IBM RS6000, DEC ALPHA, and HP 735 workstation clusters and heterogeneous clusters of these machines, as well as on CRAY T3D and Kendall Square KSR2 parallel supercomputers. Thus, PVM-AMBER provides a simple and cost-effective mechanism for parallel molecular dynamics simulations on readily available hardware platforms. Factors that affect the efficiency of this approach are discussed. © 1995 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Aza-analogues of extended tetrathiafulvalenes

The phosphoramidate-like reaction of 1,3-dithiole derived N-(diethoxyphosphinyl)hydrazones with formyl derivatives of 1,3-dithiole affords the longest aza-analogues of extended tetrathiafulvalenes with a polyenic spacer reported to date. Their structural and electrochemical properties are discussed.     

Mechanistic study of stereoselective gas-phase reactions of phosphenium ions with cis- and trans-1,2-diaminocyclohexanes

The 1,3-dioxolane-2-phosphenium ion, 1,3-benzodioxole-2-phosphenium ion, and o-biphenylenephosphenium ion are reported to react in a stereoselective manner with cis- and trans-1,2-diaminocyclohexanes in the gas phase in a Fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance mass spectrometer. Elimination of NH3 from an addition product was observed only for the trans isomer. Several reaction mechanisms were experimentally and computationally examined (B3LYP/6-31G(d)//HF/6-31G(d) + ZPVE level of theory). The most plausible mechanism is initiated by addition of one of the amino groups to the electrophilic phosphorus atom followed by proton transfer between the amino groups. A change to a diaxial conformation for the trans isomer facilitates anchimeric assistance by the now nucleophilic phosphorus atom as the C-N bond breaks to release NH3. Intramolecular proton transfer competes with the conformational change and ultimately leads to ethylene glycol elimination. The transition states for the critical steps of these two reactions are calculated to be nearly equal in magnitude, which rationalizes the observation of both reactions for the trans-diamine. In contrast, the adduct of the cis isomer can eliminate NH3 via a concerted 1,2-hydride shift without a need for a conformational change. However, the barrier associated with this reaction was found to be substantially greater than for proton transfer between the N- and O-atoms. The latter reaction dominates and ultimately leads to ethylene glycol elimination.     

Dithiolate complexes of manganese and rhenium: X-ray structure and properties of an unusual mixed valence cluster Mn3(CO)6(mu-eta2-SCH2CH2CH2S)3

Treatment of Mn(2)(CO)(10) with 3,4-toluenedithiol and 1,2-ethanedithiol in the presence of Me(3)NO.2H(2)O in CH(2)Cl(2) at room temperature afforded the dinuclear complexes Mn(2)(CO)(6)(mu-eta(4)-SC(6)H(3)(CH(3))S-SC(6)H(3)(CH(3))S) (1), and Mn(2)(CO)(6)(mu-eta(4)-SCH(2)CH(2)S-SCH(2)CH(2)S) (2), respectively. Similar reactions of Re(2)(CO)(10) with 3,4-toluenedithiol, 1,2-benzenedithiol, and 1,2-ethanedithiol yielded the dirhenium complexes Re(2)(CO)(6)(mu-eta(4)-SC(6)H(3)(CH(3))S-SC(6)H(3)(CH(3))S) (3), Re(2)(CO)(6)(mu-eta(4)-SC(6)H(4)S-SC(6)H(4)S) (4), and Re(2)(CO)(6)(SCH(2)CH(2)S-SCH(2)CH(2)S) (5), respectively. In contrast, treatment of Mn(2)(CO)(10) with 1,3-propanedithiol afforded the trimanganese compound Mn(3)(CO)(6)(mu-eta(2)-SCH(2)CH(2)CH(2)S)(3) (6), whereas Re(2)(CO)(10) gave only intractable materials. The molecular structures of 1, 3, and 6 have been determined by single-crystal X-ray diffraction studies. The dimanganese and dirhenium carbonyl compounds 1-5contain a binucleating disulfide ligand, formed by interligand disulfide bond formation between two dithiolate ligands identical in structure to that of the previously reported dimanganese complex Mn(2)(CO)(6)(mu-eta(4)-SC(6)H(4)S-SC(6)H(4)S). Complex 6, on the other hand, forms a unique example of a mixed-valence trimangenese carbonyl compound containing three bridging 1,3-propanedithiolate ligands. The solution properties of 6 have been investigated by UV-vis and EPR spectroscopies as well as electrochemical techniques.     

Quantitative analysis of perchlorate in extracts of whole fish homogenates by ion chromatography: comparison of suppressed conductivity detection and electrospray ionization mass spectrometry

The perchlorate anion (ClO ₄ ^– ) is an anthropogenic contaminant of increasing concern in water supplies, and has been shown to disrupt thyroid activity. Most perchlorate analyses are currently carried out by ion chromatography (IC) with suppressed conductivity detection (SCD). While this procedure has been demonstrated to provide acceptable performance for analysis of water samples, the determination of perchlorate in high-conductivity aqueous extracts of plant or animal material is not readily accomplished by IC-SCD unless lengthy cleanup protocols are applied. With the addition of electrospray ionization mass spectrometry (ESI-MS) to IC, it was hypothesized that the interference imposed by various ionic species could be significantly reduced without the need for purification; however, the analysis of perchlorate in relatively unpurified extracts of biologically derived homogenates by IC-ESI-MS has not previously been described in the literature. The research presented here represents a comparison of the capabilities of IC-SCD and IC-ESI-MS to detect perchlorate in reagent water and in crude extracts of perchlorate-exposed fish (threespine stickleback, Gasterosteus aculeatus). ESI-MS was found to compare favorably to SCD for the detection of perchlorate in deionized water, and to exceed SCD performance in perchlorate analysis of fish-derived extracts.     

Computer optimization of small atomic clusters

We have successfully identified stable configurations of both rare-gas and NaCl clusters with a new optimization procedure. An initial cluster configuration is prepared in a so-called shoot-and-stay process. Its total energy is then minimized with respect to the atomic coordinates. To prevent the system from being locked in local minima, the step size of each move is chosen as the width of the energy well at a higher level. As the system evolves, the global minimum is contained in the volume bounded by the decreasing value of step sizes. We have also carried out the optimization of NaCl clusters by the simulated annealing technique, for comparison. The results show that for such heterogeneous systems, the latter method cannot always find the global minimum, because of large energy gaps between different catchment regions in phase space.     

THE weighted histogram analysis method for free-energy calculations on biomolecules. I. The method

The Weighted Histogram Analysis Method (WHAM), an extension of Ferrenberg and Swendsen's Multiple Histogram Technique, has been applied for the first time on complex biomolecular Hamiltonians. The method is presented here as an extension of the Umbrella Sampling method for free-energy and Potential of Mean Force calculations. This algorithm possesses the following advantages over methods that are currently employed: (1) It provides a built-in estimate of sampling errors thereby yielding objective estimates of the optimal location and length of additional simulations needed to achieve a desired level of precision; (2) it yields the “best” value of free energies by taking into account all the simulations so as to minimize the statistical errors; (3) in addition to optimizing the links between simulations, it also allows multiple overlaps of probability distributions for obtaining better estimates of the free-energy differences. By recasting the Ferrenberg–Swendsen Multiple Histogram equations in a form suitable for molecular mechanics type Hamiltonians, we have demonstrated the feasibility and robustness of this method by applying it to a test problem of the generation of the Potential of Mean Force profile of the pseudorotation phase angle of the sugar ring in deoxyadenosine. © 1992 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.