Initial formation of an olefin-copper(I) π-complex in conjugate addition of lithium dimethylcuprate to t-butyl cinnamate

The ¹³C NMR spectrum observed upon mixing lithium dimethylcuprate and t-butyl cinnamate in toluene-d₈/THF at ?70°C shows the signals of the olefinic carbons shifted to lower δ values. These are attributed as due to a π-complex formed by coordination of copper to the carbon—carbon double bond of the cinnamate.     

Comparison of three-jet events with QCD shower models

Distributions of particles in three-jet events from e⁺e^? → hadrons are compared with different fragmentation schemes, i.e. the Lund string model, independent parton fragmentation and QCD shower models. Effects specific to the string scheme, which have been seen in the data, are also reproduced by QCD shower models if soft gluon interference effects are included.     

Binding free energies in the SAMPL6 octa-acid host–guest challenge calculated with MM and QM methods

We have estimated free energies for the binding of eight carboxylate ligands to two variants of the octa-acid deep-cavity host in the SAMPL6 blind-test challenge (with or without endo methyl groups on the four upper-rim benzoate groups, OAM and OAH, respectively). We employed free-energy perturbation (FEP) for relative binding energies at the molecular mechanics (MM) and the combined quantum mechanical (QM) and MM (QM/MM) levels, the latter obtained with the reference-potential approach with QM/MM sampling for the MM → QM/MM FEP. The semiempirical QM method PM6-DH+ was employed for the ligand in the latter calculations. Moreover, binding free energies were also estimated from QM/MM optimised structures, combined with COSMO-RS estimates of the solvation energy and thermostatistical corrections from MM frequencies. They were performed at the PM6-DH+ level of theory with the full host and guest molecule in the QM system (and also four water molecules in the geometry optimisations) for 10–20 snapshots from molecular dynamics simulations of the complex. Finally, the structure with the lowest free energy was recalculated using the dispersion-corrected density-functional theory method TPSS-D3, for both the structure and the energy. The two FEP approaches gave similar results (PM6-DH+/MM slightly better for OAM), which were among the five submissions with the best performance in the challenge and gave the best results without any fit to data from the SAMPL5 challenge, with mean absolute deviations (MAD) of 2.4–5.2 kJ/mol and a correlation coefficient (R²) of 0.77–0.93. This is the first time QM/MM approaches give binding free energies that are competitive to those obtained with MM for the octa-acid host. The QM/MM-optimised structures gave somewhat worse performance (MAD?=?3–8 kJ/mol and R²?=?0.1–0.9), but the results were improved compared to previous studies of this system with similar methods.     

Effective Assignment of α2,3/α2,6‐Sialic Acid Isomers by LC‐MS/MS‐Based Glycoproteomics

Distinct structural changes of the α2,3/α2,6‐sialic acid glycosidic linkages on glycoproteins are of importance in cancer biology, inflammatory diseases, and virus tropism. Current glycoproteomic methodologies are, however, not amenable toward high‐throughput characterization of sialic acid isomers. To enable such assignments, a mass spectrometry method utilizing synthetic model glycopeptides for the analysis of oxonium ion intensity ratios was developed. This method was successfully applied in large‐scale glycoproteomics, thus allowing the site‐specific structural characterization of sialic acid isomers.     

Determination of sucrose in the presence of glucose in a flow-injection system with imomobilized multi-enzyme reactors

Sucrose is determined by its reaction in a packed-bed enzyme reactor containing co-immobilized invertase, mutarotase and glucose oxidase. The hydrogen peroxide produced is measured spectrophotometrically after a chromogenic reaction. Glucose in the samples is decomposed in a pre-reactor containing co-immobilized mutarotase, glucose oxidase and catalase. The response is linear over more than three decades. The detection limit is 0.1 μM sucrose for injection volumes of 80 μl. The sample frequency is 80 h^?1 with an r.s.d. of 0.3%. The response for glucose is 0.7% that for sucrose.     

Measurement of the branching ratios for the decays J/ψ → ϱπ and J/ψ → γη′

Decays of the J/ψ (3.1) resonance into final states with two charged hadrons and two photons are investigated. Branching ratios for the decays J/ψ → ?π and J/ψ → γη′ are determined to be

$\text{Г(J/ψ → pφ)}\text{Г(J/ψ → all)}\text{= (1.0± 0.2) ·10}{}^{\mathrm{?2}}\text{,}\text{Г(J/ψ → γη′)}\text{ГJ/ψ → all)}\text{= (2.0± 0.7) ·}{}^{\mathrm{?3}}$

Upper limits for the same decay modes of ψ′ (3.7) are also determined.