Influence of the hydrogen bonding on the basicity of selected macrocyclic amines

The optimized minimum‐energy geometries of different macrocyclic amines and their protonated structures were determined by using ab initio and density functional theory (DFT) calculations. All the gas phase optimizations and energy calculations were performed at the DFT/B3LYP/6‐311++G(d,p) level of theory. The HF/6‐31 + G(d,p) level was used for all single point calculations in the solution phase. Geometry optimizations indicate that the most stable structures are stabilized by intramolecular hydrogen bonds. The proton affinity (PA) of macrocyclic amines is controlled by the strength of intramolecular hydrogen bonds of macrocyclic amines. These hydrogen bonds strongly influence the basicity of heteroatoms in macrocycles. The highest PA value among the studied macrocyclic amines was found to be 264.9 kcal mol^?1 for structure 7. This is comparable with PA of proton sponges such as 1,8‐bis(dimethylamino)naphthalene. The solution phase calculations were carried out in the dimethyl sulfoxide solution as a commonly used solvent in organic reactions. Natural bond orbital analysis was performed to calculate the charge transfers and the second‐order interaction energies (E⁽²⁾) between the donor and acceptor. Quantum theory of atoms in molecules (QTAIM) was also applied to determine the nature of hydrogen bonds. QTAIM studies showed that the intramolecular hydrogen bonds in these structures are electrostatic (closed‐shell) interactions as well as partially covalent and partially electrostatic in nature. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Comparative study on the antioxidant activities of the different extracts and the composition of the oil extracted by n-hexane from Iranian Vitex pseudo-negundo

Antioxidant activities of different extracts obtained from the aerial parts of Vitex pseudo-negundo from Kashan, central Iran, were evaluated for the first time in this study using β-carotene/linoleic acid and scavenging of free-radical (DPPH) assays. Water extract showed the highest activity in both assays. GC-MS analysis of the oil extracted by n-hexane revealed 46 compounds with trans-β-farnesene being the main component. Several new compounds, not reported in the previous literature, were identified in the essential oil of this chemo-type.     

Minimum cost open chain reconfiguration

An open chain or n-link is a sequence of n links with fixed lengths that are joined together at their endpoints and can turn about their endpoints, which act as joints. Positions of the joints of a chain define a configuration of the chain in the space. In one-dimensional space, we define a binary configuration as a sequence of direction of links. Open chain reconfiguration is a sequence of predefined transformation operations which can be used to convert a given binary configuration to another given binary configuration. Each transformation operation is assigned a cost. For two given binary configurations, there may be many reconfigurations whose costs are different. We formalize the problem, and we propose a dynamic programming approach to find a reconfiguration whose cost is minimum for the conversion of two given binary configurations of an open chain in the one-dimensional space. Our algorithm takes O(n²) time using O(n) space.     

Porcine P2 myelin protein primary structure and bound fatty acids determined by mass spectrometry

Complementary collision-induced/electron capture dissociation Fourier-transform ion cyclotron resonance mass spectrometry was used to fully sequence the protein P2 myelin basic protein. It is an antigenic fatty-acid-binding protein that can induce experimental autoimmune neuritis: an animal model of Guillain–Barré syndrome, a disorder similar in etiology to multiple sclerosis. Neither the primary structure of the porcine variant, nor the fatty acids bound by the protein have been well established to date. A 1.8-Å crystal structure shows but a bound ligand could not be unequivocally identified. A protocol for ligand extraction from protein crystals has been developed with subsequent gas chromatography MS analysis allowing determination that oleic, stearic, and palmitic fatty acids are associated with the protein. The results provide unique and general evidence of the utility of mass spectrometry for characterizing proteins from natural sources and generating biochemical information that may facilitate attempts to elucidate the causes for disorders such as demyelination.

Simultaneous study of cure kinetics and rheology of montmorillonite/vinyl ester resin nanocomposites

In this work, the effect of quaternary ammonium salt containing nanoclay content (1–5 wt%) on phase morphology, rheology, cure kinetics, and mechanical properties of the vinyl ester resin (VER)‐based nanocomposites was studied. The morphological characterization including d‐spacing measurement, microscopy observation and phase‐height image processing were performed on the prepared nanocomposites using small angel X‐ray scattering (SAXS), transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and atomic force microscopy (AFM). According to the results obtained from these techniques, it was concluded that an intercalated morphology existed for all the nanocomposites. The kinetic analyses of the isothermal curing followed by storage modulus obtained from the rheometry experiments are shown to be an affective rheological characteristic to investigate the cure behavior of VER/clay nanocomposites. In addition, the most important finding regarding the effect of nanoclay on the cross‐linking behavior of VER systems lays on the chemisorption and physisorption of the reacting monomers and initiator molecules on the nanoclay platelets surface which is found to be responsible for the retardation of the cure reaction caused by organoclay. Eventually, the mechanical characterizations were performed through the tensile, flexural and impact analysis tests. In this case, a considerable improvement of the bulk mechanical responses such as tensile and flexural strengths and also the corresponding moduli were observed for the nanocomposites. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A histogram-based segmentation method for characterization of self-assembled hexagonal lattices

Lattice characterization techniques are often used to quantify the effects of different anodization conditions on nano-porous anodized aluminum oxides. In this work, we develop a comprehensive hexagonal lattice characterization method to evaluate the amount of ordering of the lattice and localize the domains of the image and report their characteristics. A robust preprocessing is proposed to find pores’ centroids. Different domains of SEM images usually have different orientations. Pores orientation distribution is analyzed using angle-histogram. The valleys of angle-histogram are employed as thresholds to separate different dominant orientations. We show that using orientation as a distinguishing feature of different domains, significantly improves the robustness of the algorithm against tolerance parameters. Some new parameters are introduced to exactly characterize each of the domains and the whole lattice.     

Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) for Optimizing the Nano-SiO2 Content of High Performance Epoxy Nanocomposites

Epoxy based nanocomposite samples containing SiO₂ nanoparticles (0.0–3.0 %w) were prepared for physical and mechanical evaluation. Some thermomechanical and physical properties of samples were investigated using dynamic mechanical analysis (DMA), tensile strength, hardness and abrasion tests. The main aim of experimentation was to realize the optimum amount of nano-SiO₂ which would demonstrate the best improving effect on mechanical and physical properties of nanocomposite samples and finding how significant a factor is for improving in physical and mechanical properties. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) was applied for optimization of SiO₂ content in epoxy based nanocomposites.