Mosaics of combinatorial designs for information-theoretic security

Designs, Codes and Cryptography - We study security functions which can serve to establish semantic security for the two central problems of information-theoretic security: the wiretap channel, and...     

Dynamic Interactions in Synthetic Receptors: A Guest Exchange Saturation Transfer Study

The accumulated knowledge regarding molecular architectures is based on established, reliable, and accessible analytical tools that provide robust structural and functional information on assemblies. However, both the dynamicity and low population of noncovalently interacting moieties within studied molecular systems limit the efficiency and accuracy of traditional methods. Herein, the use of a saturation transfer-based NMR approach to study the dynamic binding characteristics of an anion to a series of synthetic receptors derived from bambusuril macrocycles is demonstrated. The exchange rates of BF₄⁻ are mediated by the side chains on the receptor (100 s⁻¹<k_ex<5000 s⁻¹), which play a critical role in receptor-anion binding dynamics. The signal amplification obtained with this approach allows for the identification of different types of intermolecular interactions between the receptor and the anion, something that could not have been detected by techniques hitherto used to study molecular assemblies. These findings, which are supported by a computational molecular dynamic study, demonstrate the uniqueness and added value of this NMR method.     

Über die Löslichkeit des Berlinerblaus

Ohne ZusammenfassungHerrn Ingenieur E. Hofmann danke ich fÜr seine bewährte UnterstÜtzung.     

On the slowness of phase boundary motion in one space dimension

We study the limiting behavior of the solution of with a Neumann boundary condition or an appropriate Dirichlet condition. The analysis is based on “energy methods”. We assume that the initial data has a “transition layer structure”, i.e., u^? ≈ ±+M 1 except near finitely many transition points. We show that, in the limit as ? → 0, the solution maintains its transition layer structure, and the transition points move slower than any power of ?.     

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Analysis of spin states, spin barriers, and trans-effects involved in the coordination and stabilization of dinitrogen by biomimetic iron complexes

Coordination of dinitrogen to Sellmann-type iron (II) complexes in a sulfur-dominated coordination sphere, which emulates the environment of iron centers in the FeMo-cofactor of nitrogenase, is analyzed with respect to spin states, spin barriers, and the effect of trans-ligands. Such detailed investigations became only recently feasible when the reliability of density functional methods, which are the only quantum chemical methods capable of describing large transition metal complexes, could significantly be improved for the calculation of energies for states of different spin. It is found that the actual binding energy of dinitrogen is of sufficient magnitude for a reasonably strong fixation of N₂ by Sellmann-type coordination compounds. However, potential fixation is determined by additional factors which reduce the binding energy. One factor is the change in spin state of the N₂-free metal fragment, which lowers the total energy and quenches the thermodynamic stabilization effect of the binding energy. In addition, the metal fragment rearranges and gains even more stabilization energy for the un-coordinated state. Apart from these thermodynamical effects, the existence of spin barriers, which must be overcome upon binding of dinitrogen, leads to kinetical effects, which cannot be neglected.     

A nonenzymic model for the coenzyme B12-dependent isomerization of methylmalonyl-SCoA to suiccinyl-SCoA

Dimethyl bromomethylmalonate (IV) reacts with vitamin B_12s in aqueous solution yielding a relatively unstable carbon-cobalt bonded adduct V, which shows visible spectra in good accord with expectation. The adduct V was allowed to decompose in water, in the dark, at room temperature and at physiological pH. Three products: succinic acid (VI), methylmalonic acid (VIII) and malonic acid (VII) were formed in 3, 18, and 13% yields respectively. Isolation of the succinic acid rearrangement product provides support for the intermediacy of the carbon-cobalt bond in the coenzyme B₁₂ dependent enzymic carbon-skeleton rearrangement of methylmalonyl-SCoA to succinyl-SCoA.