Enzymatic Method for the Synthesis of Long DNA Sequences with Multiple Repeat Units

A polymerase chain reaction (PCR) derived method for preparing long DNA, consisting of multiple repeat units of one to ten base pairs, is described. Two seeding oligodeoxynucleotides, so‐called oligoseeds, which encode the repeat unit and produce a duplex with 5′‐overhangs, are extended using a thermostable archaeal DNA polymerase. Multiple rounds of heat–cool extension cycles, akin to PCR, rapidly elongate the oligoseed. Twenty cycles produced long DNA with uniformly repeating sequences to over 20 kilobases (kb) in length. The polynucleotides prepared include [A]_n/[T]_n, [AG]_n/[TC]_n, [A₂G]_n/[T₂C]_n, [A₃G]_n/[T₃C]_n, [A₄G]_n/[T₄C]_n, [A₉G]_n/[T₉C]_n, [GATC]_n/[CTAG]_n, and [ACTGATCAGC]_n/[TGACTAGTCG]_n, indicating that the method is extremely flexible with regard to the repeat length and base sequence of the initial oligoseeds. DNA of this length (20 kb≈7 μm) with strictly defined base reiterations should find use in nanomaterial applications.     

Solid state NMR characterisation of crystalline Na2OZrO2SiO2 phases

The NMR interactions of crystalline phases in the system Na₂O-ZrO₂-SiO₂ have been studied by a combination of static and magic angle spinning NMR methods for the first time. A full multinuclear (¹⁷O, ²³Na, ²⁹Si and ⁹¹Zr) approach has been employed that allows the phases to be clearly identified. NMR interactions such as ²⁹Si isotropic chemical shift correlate with the known structural units present. For ²³Na the different sites can often be distinguished on the basis of differing quadrupolar interactions.     

Photoelectron spectra of As4S3, P4S3, P4Se3 and As4O6

The He(I) UV photoelectron spectra of As₄S₃, P₄S₃, P₄Se₃ and As₄O₆ are reported in this paper. The spectra of As₄S₃ and the isostructural molecules P₄S₃ and P₄Se₃ comprise seven broad but clearly defined peaks, whilst the spectrum of As₄O₆ consists of six peaks and two shoulders. By comparing the spectra with one another and with the photoelectron spectra of other arsenic and phosphorus compounds, the character and symmetry species of the highest-energy occupied molecular orbitals of the molecules have been assigned.     

Authentication and authenticated key exchanges

We discuss two-party mutual authentication protocols providing authenticated key exchange, focusing on those using asymmetric techniques. A simple, efficient protocol referred to as the station-to-station (STS) protocol is introduced, examined in detail, and considered in relation to existing protocols. The definition of a secure protocol is considered, and desirable characteristics of secure protocols are discussed.This work was done while Whitfield Diffie was with Northern Telecom, Mountain View, California.     

A 69Ga, 115In NQR study of polytypes of GaS,GaSe and InSe

Pulsed Fourier transform NQR spectroscopy has been used to study polytypism in the monochalcogenides GaS, GaSe and InSe at 77 K. The spectrum of GaS was consistent with a major contribution from the β phase but showed evidence of higher polytypes, possibly due to ? or γ type faulting. The GaSe spectrum is simply interpreted as an equal mixture of ? and γ types. The four InSe spectra ($\text{I}\text{=}\text{9}\text{2}$¹¹⁵In), showed a multiplicity of lines. The sharpness of the NQR lines of all spectra suggests the existence of regions with a hitherto overlooked high degree of order.     

Norms with locally Lipschitzian derivatives

If a separable Banach spaceX admits a real valued function ф with bounded nonempty support, φ 艂 is locally Lipschitzian and if no subspace ofX is isomorphic toc _o, thenX admits an equivalent twice Gateaux differentiable norm whose first Frechet differential is Lipschitzian on the unit sphere ofX. This author's research supported in part by NSERC (Canada) Grant A7535.     

Structure and hydrogen bonding in neat N-methylacetamide: classical molecular dynamics and Raman spectroscopy studies of a liquid of peptidic fragments

The results of classical molecular dynamics (MD) simulations and Raman spectroscopy studies of neat liquid N-methylacetamide (NMA), the simplest model system relevant to the peptides, are reported as a function of temperature and pressure. The MD simulations predict that near ambient conditions, the molecules form a hydrogen bond network consisting primarily of linear chains. Both the links between molecules within the hydrogen-bonded chains and the associations between chains are stabilized by weak methyl-donated "improper" hydrogen bonds. The three-dimensional structural motifs observed in the liquid show some similarity to protein beta-sheets. The temperature and pressure dependence of the hydrogen bond network, as probed by the mode frequency of the experimentally determined amide-I Raman band, blue shifts on heating and red shifts under compression, respectively, suggesting weakened and enhanced hydrogen bonding in response to temperature and pressure increases. Disruption of the hydrogen-bonding network is clearly observed in the simulation data as temperature is increased, whereas the improper hydrogen bonding is enhanced under compression to reduce the energetic cost of increasing the packing fraction. Because of the neglect of polarizability in the molecular model, the computed dielectric constant is underestimated compared to the experimental value, indicating that the simulation may underestimate dipolar coupling in the liquid.     

Simulation of electronic structure Hamiltonians using quantum computers

Over the last century, a large number of physical and mathematical developments paired with rapidly advancing technology have allowed the field of quantum chemistry to advance dramatically. However, the lack of computationally efficient methods for the exact simulation of quantum systems on classical computers presents a limitation of current computational approaches. We report, in detail, how a set of pre-computed molecular integrals can be used to explicitly create a quantum circuit, i.e. a sequence of elementary quantum operations, that, when run on a quantum computer, obtains the energy of a molecular system with fixed nuclear geometry using the quantum phase estimation algorithm. We extend several known results related to this idea and discuss the adiabatic state preparation procedure for preparing the input states used in the algorithm. With current and near future quantum devices in mind, we provide a complete example using the hydrogen molecule of how a chemical Hamiltonian can be simulated using a quantum computer.