Statistical mechanics of warm and cold unfolding in proteins

We present a statistical mechanics treatment of the stability of globular proteins which takes explicitly into account the coupling between the protein and water degrees of freedom. This allows us to describe both the cold and the warm unfolding, thus qualitatively reproducing the known thermodynamics of proteins. Received: 19 March 1998 / Revised and Accepted: 25 May 1998     

Thermodynamic and surface properties of Sb-Sn and In-Sn liquid alloys

The thermodynamic properties of Sb-Sn and In-Sn liquid alloys have been studied using the quasi-chemical model for compound forming binary alloys and that for simple regular alloys. The concentration fluctuation S _cc(0) and the Warren-Cowley short-range order parameter (α ₁) were determined for the whole concentration range at a temperature of 770 K. The surface tensions of these liquid alloys were determined for the whole concentration range by using energetics determined from thermodynamic calculations. In all calculations, In-Sn manifested properties very close to alloys of ideal mixing, while Sb-Sn showed properties that are asymmetric about equiatomic composition. Our results suggest that a weak complex of the form SbSn₂ could be present in the Sb-Sn alloy at a temperature of about 770 K.     

MONTE CARLO STUDY ON THE CRITICAL ADSORPTION POINT OF BOND-FLUCTUATED POLYMER CHAINS TETHERED ON ADSORBING SURFACES

 The behavior of three-dimensional bond fluctuation model chains tethered on an adsorbing flat surface was simulated by the Monte Carlo method. The dependence of the number of surface contacts M on the interaction strength e and the chain length N was investigated by a finite-size scaling law M = N[a₀ + a₁N^1/v_k + O((N ^1/v_k)²)] for e near the critical adsorption point e_c, i.e., k ≡(e-e_c)/e_c closes to 0. The critical adsorption point was estimated to be e_c = 0.93, and the exponents  = 0.49 and 1/v= 0.57.     

Do intramolecular halogen bonds exist? Ab initio calculations and crystal structures’ evidences

Cl···O intramolecular contacts are analysed here. Hence the Cambridge Structural Database (CSD) search was performed to find five-membered Cl–C=C–C=O pseudo-rings closed through Cl···O intramolecular contacts. Such rings were analysed and it was found that some of Cl···O distances are smaller than the corresponding sum of van der Waals radii. Additionally ab initio MP2/6-311++G(d,p) calculations and AIM analyses were carried out here on 3-chloropropenal and its fluoro derivatives to deepen the nature of intramolecular Cl···O interactions, some of findings may indicate that they are attractive and stabilizing ones. This paper is dedicated to Prof. T. M. Krygowski on the occasion of his 70th birthday     

Synthesis of Polyacrylaminothiourea Chelating Fiber and Properties of Concentration and Separation of Trace Noble Metal Ions from Samples

A novel polyacrylaminothiourea chelating fiber was synthesized simply and rapidly from nitrilon (an acrylonitrile-based synthetic fiber), which was applied to preconcentrate and separate of trace amount of Au(Ⅲ）,Pt(Ⅳ）,Pd(Ⅳ） and Ir (Ⅳ） ions from solution of samples.The analyzed ions can be quantitatively concentrated by the fiber up to a flow rate of 20.0mL/min at pH2, and can also be desorbed with 15 mL of 4mol/L HCl 3% thiourea from the fiber column with recoveries of 96.5%-100%.The chelating fiber can be reused for ten times,the recoveries of these ions are still over 92%,and hundred to thousand times of excess of Fe(Ⅲ）,Al（Ⅲ）,Ca(Ⅱ），Mg（Ⅱ）,Ni(Ⅱ）,Mn（Ⅱ),Cu(Ⅱ），Zn(Ⅱ），and Cd(Ⅱ） cause no interference on the determination of the analyzed ions by inductively-coupled plasma atomic emission spectrometry (ICP-AES).The static saturation adsorption capacities of the fiber for the analytes are in the range of 1.15-2.80mmol/g.The relative standard deviations for the determination of 20.0ng/mL each of Au(Ⅲ）,Pt(Ⅳ）,Pd(Ⅳ）and Ir(Ⅳ） are in the range of 0.7%-3.0%.The recoveries for test from standard additions to real solution samples are between 96% and 100%.The concentration of each ion in powder sample detected by the method is in good agreement with the certified value.     

两亲嵌段共聚物聚乙二醇-聚谷氨酸苄酯纳米粒药物载体的合成研究

用磺酸酯法制备单端氨基聚乙二醇引发剂,引发谷氨酸苄酯羧酸酐开环聚合,生成可生物降解的两亲嵌段共聚物聚乙二醇﹣聚谷氨酸苄酯(PEG-PBLG),用IR,NMR和GPC表征了共聚物。用超微透析法制备PEG-PBLG聚合物纳米粒,荧光芘探针法测定纳米粒的临界聚集浓度(cac)。紫外分光光度计考察纳米粒对疏水性药物的增溶作用,PEG-PBLG可作为亚微粒药物输送系统的载体。     

Concentrations of Active Species in the Flowing Afterglow of a Nitrogen Microwave Plasma

Measurements of nitrogen atom density, by means of NO chemical titration, along with an evaluation of the densities of some excited species N ₂ (B, v=11), N ₂ (B, v=2), N ₂ (C, v=0), and N ₂ ⁺ (B,v=0), by means of a spectroscopic study of some bands of dinitrogen, are achieved along the flowing afterglow of a dinitrogen microwave plasma (2450 MHz) for several pressures. The concentrations obtained are in the following range: [N]10 ⁺¹⁵ , [N ₂ (B, 2)]10 ⁺⁹ –10 ⁺¹⁰ , [N ₂ (B, 11)]10 ⁺⁸ –10 ⁺⁹ , [N ₂ (C, 0)]10 ⁺⁶ –10 ⁺⁷ , [N ₂ ⁺ (B,0)]10 ⁺⁶ -10 ⁺⁸ (cm^-3). From a kinetic study of the formation and decay of excited and charged species, an estimation of N ₂ (A, v), N ₂ (X, v, and N ₂ ⁺ (X) densities can be derived: [N ₂ (A, v)]10 ⁺¹² , [N ₂ (X, v6)]10 ⁺¹⁵ –10 ⁺¹⁶ , [N ₂ (X, v12)]10 ⁺¹⁴ –10 ⁺¹⁵ , [N ₂ ⁺ (X)]10 ⁺¹⁰ (cm ^-3 ).     

Size of Micelles Determined by Static Fluorescence Quenching

We developed a new method to measure the average aggregation number of large rod-like micelles using static fluorescence self-quenching of a solubilized fluorophore. The method is based on the increase of self-quenching of micelle-solubilized pyrene through excimer formation. We consider the effect of random distribution of pyrene in micelles and the micellar size distribution. The measured average aggregation <n> _M is based on a new M-weighted raging similar to our exponential-weighted averaging in the transient decay method. We apply this method to study the effect of a large concentration of salt on the average aggregation behavior of sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) and cetyle tetraammonium bromide (CTAB). The sizes increase with increasing ionic concentrations. For SDS, we used the thermodynamic model developed by Missel et al. to calculate < n > _M which we compare with experimental results.     

Interval estimation of the critical value in a general linear model

Summary This paper concerns interval estimation of the critical value θ which satisfies under the general linear model,Y _i =μ(x _i )+ε _i (i=1,2,···), where for and the functional forms off _j ^′ s are known. From an asymptotic expansion it is shown that, under reasonable conditions, the limiting distribution of is normal. Thus in the large-sample case a confidence interval for θ can be obtained. Such a result is useful when one is interested in carrying out a retrospective analysis rather than designing the experiment (as in the Kiefer-Wolfowitz procedure). In Section 3 a sequential procedure is considered for confidence intervals with fixed width 2d. It is shown that, for a given stopping variableN, is also asymptotically normal asd→0. Thus the coverage probability converges to 1−α (preassigned) asd→0. An example of application in estimating the phase parameter in circadian rhythms is given for the purpose of illustration. Research partially supported by the NSF Grant DMS-8502346.