Experimental tests of chirality algebra

Most chiral molecules can be dissected into a collection of ligands attached to an underlying skeleton. Application of permutation group theory and group representation theory to such a model can lead to chirality functions which can be used to approximate pseudoscalar measurements such as optical rotation or circular dichroism. Such chirality functions have been tested experimentally for the following skeletons: (1) The polarized triangle of phosphines and phosphine oxides; (2) the tetrahedron of methane derivatives; (3) the disphenoid of allene and 2, 2-spirobiindane derivatives; (4) the polarized rectangle of [2, 2]-metacyclophanes; (5) the polarized pentagon of heterodisubstituted ferrocenes. The success of this method is fair to good for the polarized triangle, tetrahedron, and disphenoid skeletons but deteriorates rapidly for the polarized rectangle and polarized pentagon skeletons, in accord with the greater group-theoretical complexity of the latter skeletons.     

P-Nitrosophosphate compounds: new N-O heterodienophiles and nitroxyl delivery agents

P-Nitrosophosphates, such as 9, react as N-O heterodienophiles with 1,3-dienes to form highly functionalized cycloadducts that can be directly transformed into allylic phosphoramidates. The in situ periodate oxidation of the unstable N-hydroxyphosphoramidate precursors provides an efficient preparation of these new reactive intermediates. P-Nitrosophosphate (9) regioselectively reacts with 1-methoxy-1,3-butadiene to provide cycloadduct 16. P-Nitrosophosphate (9) also reacts with 9,10-dimethylanthracene to give cycloadduct 17, which undergoes retro Diels-Alder dissociation to re-form 9. In the absence of a 1,3-diene, the decomposition of 17 produces nitrous oxide, evidence for nitroxyl, the one-electron-reduced form of nitric oxide. An asymmetric P-nitrosophosphate reacted with 1,3-cyclohexadiene to form a mixture of diastereomeric cycloadducts (19 and 20) in a 1.6:1 ratio. These results identify P-nitrosophosphates as new species that react similarly to acyl nitroso compounds, making them useful synthetic intermediates and potential nitroxyl delivery agents.     

Renormalized perturbation theory of the Van der Pol oscillator

The renormalized perturbation expansion for the linewidth of the Van der Pol oscillator is extended to fifth order. The results of the previously obtained fourth order are thereby improved for pump strengthsa5. No indication of a breakdown of the expansion, even for strong pumping, is found.     

Electronic structure of strongly correlated systems: recent developments in multiconfiguration pair-density functional theory and multiconfiguration nonclassical-energy functional theory

Strong electron correlation plays an important role in transition-metal and heavy-metal chemistry, magnetic molecules, bond breaking, biradicals, excited states, and many functional materials, but it provides a significant challenge for modern electronic structure theory. The treatment of strongly correlated systems usually requires a multireference method to adequately describe spin densities and near-degeneracy correlation. However, quantitative computation of dynamic correlation with multireference wave functions is often difficult or impractical. Multiconfiguration pair-density functional theory (MC-PDFT) provides a way to blend multiconfiguration wave function theory and density functional theory to quantitatively treat both near-degeneracy correlation and dynamic correlation in strongly correlated systems; it is more affordable than multireference perturbation theory, multireference configuration interaction, or multireference coupled cluster theory and more accurate for many properties than Kohn–Sham density functional theory. This perspective article provides a brief introduction to strongly correlated systems and previously reviewed progress on MC-PDFT followed by a discussion of several recent developments and applications of MC-PDFT and related methods, including localized-active-space MC-PDFT, generalized active-space MC-PDFT, density-matrix-renormalization-group MC-PDFT, hybrid MC-PDFT, multistate MC-PDFT, spin–orbit coupling, analytic gradients, and dipole moments. We also review the more recently introduced multiconfiguration nonclassical-energy functional theory (MC-NEFT), which is like MC-PDFT but allows for other ingredients in the nonclassical-energy functional. We discuss two new kinds of MC-NEFT methods, namely multiconfiguration density coherence functional theory and machine-learned functionals.

This feature article overviews recent work on active spaces, matrix product reference states, treatment of quasidegeneracy, hybrid theory, density-coherence functionals, machine-learned functionals, spin–orbit coupling, gradients, and dipole moments.     

In silico design of peptidic inhibitors targeting estrogen receptor alpha dimer interface

Human estrogen receptor alpha (ERα), which acts as a biomarker and as a therapeutic target for breast cancers, is activated by agonist ligands and co-activator proteins. Selective estrogen receptor modulators (SERM) act as antagonists in specific tissues and tamoxifen, a SERM, has served as a drug for decades for ERα-positive breast cancers. However, the ligand-selective and tissue-specific response of ERα biological activity and the resistance to tamoxifen treatment in advanced stages of ERα-positive breast cancers underscores the need to find a ligand-independent inhibitor for ERα. Here we present a ligand-independent approach of inhibiting ERα transactivation targeting its dimerization-a key process of ERα biological activity. Using in silico techniques, we first elucidated the hydrogen bond interactions involved in dimerization and identified three interfacial sequence motifs, where sequence I (DKITD) and sequence II (QQQHQRLAQ) of one monomer form hydrogen bonding with sequence II and sequence I of the second monomer, respectively, and sequence III (LSHIRHMSNK) hydrogen bonds with the same from the second monomer. Studying the structural stability and the binding affinity of the peptides derived from these sequence motifs, we found that an extended and ARG mutated version (LQQQHQQLAQ) of sequence II can act as a suitable template for designing peptidic inhibitors. It provides additional structural stability and interacts more strongly with ERα dimer interface groove formed by helices 9 and 10/11 and prevent ERα dimerization. Our result provides a novel therapeutic designing pipeline for ligand-independent inhibition of ERα.     

An experimental study of sound generated by flows around cylinders of different cross-section

The sound radiated by rigid cylinders placed transversely in a uniform stream has been measured in an anechoic wind tunnel over a range of Mach numbers (M=0.09-0.2). The cylinders have different cross-sections, e.g., circular, square, rectangular, elliptic, and circular with lateral ribs or knurled surfaces. Different length to diameter ratios of the cylinders are also investigated. Results are presented as narrow band spectra, measured in the far field (acoustic as well as geometric). All spectra are presented with dimensionless (scaled) axes, as well as the original dimensional scales. It is shown that elliptic cross-sections are less noisy, compared to all other cylinders, but noise abatement techniques such as lateral ribs and knurled surfaces can also reduce tonal radiated noise. Two practical applications of these experiments are the reduction of radiated noise from pantographs of high-speed railway trains, and from the landing gear of modern passenger aircraft.     

Measurement of the parity-violating asymmetry in inclusive electroproduction of π- near the Δ0 resonance

The parity-violating (PV) asymmetry of inclusive π- production in electron scattering from a liquid deuterium target was measured at backward angles. The measurement was conducted as a part of the G0 experiment, at a beam energy of 360 MeV. The physics process dominating pion production for these kinematics is quasifree photoproduction off the neutron via the Δ0 resonance. In the context of heavy-baryon chiral perturbation theory, this asymmetry is related to a low-energy constant d(Δ)- that characterizes the parity-violating γNΔ coupling. Zhu et al. calculated d(Δ)- in a model benchmarked by the large asymmetries seen in hyperon weak radiative decays, and predicted potentially large asymmetries for this process, ranging from A(γ)-=-5.2 to +5.2 ppm. The measurement performed in this work leads to A(γ)-=-0.36±1.06±0.37±0.03 ppm (where sources of statistical, systematic and theoretical uncertainties are included), which would disfavor enchancements considered by Zhu et al. proportional to V(ud)/V(us). The measurement is part of a program of inelastic scattering measurements that were conducted by the G0 experiment, seeking to determine the N-Δ axial transition form factors using PV electron scattering.     

Discharge-driven electric oxygen-iodine laser superlinear enhancement via increasing g0L

The authors report the development of an electric oxygen-iodine laser with higher output using a larger product of gain and gain length, g0L. A factor of 4.4 increase in laser power output on the 1315 nm atomic iodine transition was achieved with a factor of 3 increase in gain length. I(2P1/2) is pumped using energy transferred from O2(a1Δ) produced by flowing a gas mixture of O2-He-NO through three coaxial geometry radio-frequency discharges. Continuous wave (CW) average total laser power of 481 W was extracted with g0L=0.042.