The importance of protonation and tautomerization in relative binding affinity prediction: a comparison of AMBER TI and Schrödinger FEP

In drug discovery, protonation states and tautomerization are easily overlooked. Through a Merck–Rutgers collaboration, this paper re-examined the initial settings and preparations for the Thermodynamic Integration (TI) calculation in AMBER Free-Energy Workflows, demonstrating the value of careful consideration of ligand protonation and tautomer state. Finally, promising results comparing AMBER TI and Schrödinger FEP+ are shown that should encourage others to explore the value of TI in routine Structure-based Drug Design.     

Salt effect on molecular orientation at air/liquid methanol interface

The salt effects on molecular orientation at air/liquid methanol interface were investigated by the polarization-dependent sum frequency generation vibrational spectroscopy(SFG-VS). We clarified that the average tilting angle of the methyl group to be u = 308 58 at the air/pure methanol surface assuming a d-function orientational distribution. Upon the addition of 3 mol/L Na I, the methyl group tilts further away from the surface normal with a new u = 418 38. This orientational change does not explain the enhancement of the SFG-VS intensities when adding Na I, implying the number density of the methanol molecules with a net polar ordering in the surface region also changed with the Na I concentrations. These spectroscopic findings shed new light on the salt effects on the surfaces structures of the polar organic solutions. It was also shown that the accurate determination of the bulk refractive indices and Raman depolarization ratios for different salt concentrations is crucial to quantitatively interpret the SFG-VS data.     

Ni–Al composite hydroxides fabricated by cation–anion double hydrolysis method for high-performance supercapacitor

Chemical doping of nickel hydroxide with other cations(e.g. Al~(3+)) is an efficient way to enhance its electrochemical capacitive performances. Herein, a simple cation–anion(Ni~(2+)and AlO_2) double hydrolysis method was developed toward the synthesis of nickel–aluminum(Ni–Al) composite hydroxides. The obtained composite hydroxides possesses a porous structure, large surface area(121 m~2/g) and homogeneous element distribution. The electrochemical test shows that the obtained composite hydroxides exhibits a superior supercapacitive performances(specific capacitance of 1670F/g and rate capability of 87% from 0.5 A/g to 20 A/g) to doping-free nickel hydroxide(specific capacitance of 1227 F/g and rate capability of 47% from 0.5 A/g to 20 A/g). Moreover, the galvanostatic charge/discharge test displays that after 2000 cycles at large current density of 10 A/g, the composite hydroxides achieves a high capacitance retention of 98%, indicative of an excellent electrochemical cycleability.     

高比能高功率全石墨烯锂离子电容器

石墨烯由于拥有超高比表面积和超高电导率而被作为电化学电容器材料广泛研究.本文采用树脂为碳源，通过一种方便快捷的树脂交换法制备一种具有高比表面积的多级孔三维石墨烯（3DG）.经过此种方法的催化、造孔、热处理等主要工艺步骤后，可显著增加石墨烯材料的小、介孔数量，从而提高材料的电化学性能.通过BET测试表明，3DG的比表面积可达2400 m²/g，孔体积达到2.0 cm³/g.以3DG作为正负极材料制备高比能量高功率型锂离子电容器（3DG-LIC），可使3DG-LIC的工作电压从传统超级电容器的2.5 V扩展到4.0 V，能量密度也从20 Wh/kg提高到105 Wh/kg.另外，相同的化学和微观结构能很好地平衡正负极的容量及速率，使高比能量高功率的3DG-LIC具有更宽阔的应用领域.     

Combined use of ionic liquid and β‐CD for enantioseparation of 12 pharmaceuticals using CE

In this study, the enantioseparation of zopiclone, repaglinide, chlorphenamine maleate, brompheniramine maleate, dioxopromethazine hydrochloride, promethazine hydrochloride, liarozole, carvedilol, homatropine hydrobromide, homatropine methylbromide, venlafaxine, and sibutramine hydrochloride has been investigated using β‐CD in combination with a chiral ionic liquid (IL), 1‐ethyl‐3‐methylimidazolium‐L‐lactate. The influence of the type of IL and its concentration, BGE pH, and chain length of the IL cations on the resolution are discussed. Finally, the proposed method was successfully applied for the chiral impurity determination of eszopiclone in pharmaceutical tablets after validation with respect to accuracy and precision, linearity range, selectivity, repeatability, LOD and LOQ. It is assessed that the chiral impurity determination in the commercial tables is fewer than 0.1%.     

On the monitoring model of reference point of VLBI antenna

Some insights and analysis are presented concerning the monitoring model of the VLBI(Very Long Baseline Interferometry) antenna,settings of parameters and selection of constraints to the observation equation,which are verified via data simulation analysis to be reasonable and effective.The effects of the number of targets and antenna orientations,the precision of target positioning observations,the observation outliers detection and deletion on the determination precision of antenna parameters are also analyzed,and some preliminary conclusions are given.     

Montmorillonite Clay Catalysis I: An Efficient and Convenient Procedure for Preparation of 5(6)/5′(6′)-Unsaturated 3β-Disteryl Ethers

In the presence of montmorillonite K 10, 5(6)-unsaturated sterols (1) were heated at refluxing temperature in dichloromethane to provide 5(6)/5′(6′)-unsaturated 3β,3′β-disteryl ethers (4) in 69–73% yield. The mechanism of the reaction was discussed.