Search

Introduction: The incidence of myotonic dystrophy type 1 (DM1), a disease with great phenotypic variety, in our region is unknown. This study aims to estimate the incidence of DM1 at our hospital (a reference centre in Aragon, Spain) and to identify the characteristics of our population (genotype-phenotype correlation)., Methods: Retrospective, descriptive study of 459 patients classified according to the number of CTG repeats, as follows: normal (5-35), premutation (36-50), protomutation (51-80), small expansions (81-150), intermediate expansions (151-1000), and large expansions (> 1000). Furthermore, according to clinical phenotype, patients were categorised as unaffected (5-50 CTG repeats), mild form or asymptomatic (51-150), classical form (151-1000), and severe form (> 1000)., Results: The incidence of DM1 was 20.61 cases per million person-years (95% CI, 19.59-21.63). An inverse correlation was observed between the number of CTG repeats and the age at genetic diagnosis (ρ = -0.547; 95% CI, -0.610 to -0.375; P < .001). CTG 5 was the most frequent polymorphic allele in healthy individuals. Of all patients with DM1, 28.3% presented the mild or asymptomatic form, 59.1% the classical form, and 12.6% the severe form. Inheritance was maternal in 35.1% of cases, paternal in 59.4%, and uncertain in 5.5%. In mild forms, frontal balding in men was the most prevalent phenotypic trait, as well as myotonia and cataracts, while in the classical form, ptosis, facial weakness, voice and pronunciation alterations, myotonia, and fatigue/sleepiness were most frequent., Conclusions: The incidence of DM1 in Aragon is significant. Multidisciplinary study of the phenotype of patients with DM1 is key to early diagnosis and personalised management., (Copyright © 2021 Sociedad Española de Neurología. Published by Elsevier España, S.L.U. All rights reserved.)

From coupled-cluster singles and doubles model including connected triples corrections [CCSD(T)] calculations on the water dimer and B97D/CC on the water-circumcoronene complex at a large number of randomly generated conformations, interaction potentials for the physisorption of water on graphene are built, accomplishing almost sub-chemical accuracy. The force fields were constructed by decomposing the interaction into electrostatic and van der Waals contributions, the latter represented through improved Lennard-Jones potentials. Besides, a Chemistry at Harvard Macromolecular Mechanics (CHARMM)-like term was included in the water-water potential to improve the description of hydrogen bonds, and an induction term was added to model the polarization effects in the interaction between water and polyaromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) or graphene. Two schemes with three and six point charges were considered for the interactions water-water and water-PAH, as Coulomb contributions are zero in the water-graphene system. The proposed fitted potentials reproduce the ab initio data used to build them in the whole range of distances and conformations and provide results for selected points very close to CCSD(T) benchmarks. When applied to the water-graphene system, the obtained results are in excellent agreement with p-CCSD(T), revised symmetry-adapted perturbation theory based on density functional theory monomer properties (DFT-SAPT), and diffusion Monte Carlo reference values. Furthermore, the stability of the various conformers water-PAH and water-graphene, as well as the different trends observed between these systems are rationalized in terms of the modifications of the electrostatic contribution.

The adsorption-for separation, storage and transportation-of methane, hydrogen and their mixture is important for a sustainable energy consumption in present-day society. Graphene derivatives have proven to be very promising for such an application, yet for a good design a better understanding of the optimal pore size is needed. In this work, grand canonical Monte Carlo simulations, employing Improved Lennard-Jones potentials, are performed to determine the ideal interlayer distance for a slit-shaped graphene pore in a large pressure range. A detailed study of the adsorption behavior of methane, hydrogen and their equimolar mixture in different sizes of graphene pores is obtained through calculation of absolute and excess adsorption isotherms, isosteric heats and the selectivity. Moreover, a molecular picture is provided through z-density profiles at low and high pressure. It is found that an interlayer distance of about twice the van der Waals distance of the adsorbate is recommended to enhance the adsorbing ability. Furthermore, the graphene structures with slit-shaped pores were found to be very capable of adsorbing methane and separating methane from hydrogen in a mixture at reasonable working conditions (300 K and well below 15 atm).

Introduction: The incidence of myotonic dystrophy type1 (DM1), a disease with great phenotypic variety, in our region is unknown. This study aims to estimate the incidence of DM1 at our hospital (a reference centre in Aragon, Spain) and to identify the characteristics of our population (genotype-phenotype correlation)., Methods: Retrospective, descriptive study of 459 patients classified according to the number of CTG repeats, as follows: normal (5-35), premutation (36-50), protomutation (51-80), small expansions (81-150), intermediate expansions (151-1000), and large expansions (>1000). Furthermore, according to clinical phenotype, patients were categorised as unaffected (5-50 CTG repeats), mild form or asymptomatic (51-150), classical form (151-1000), and severe form (>1000)., Results: The incidence of DM1 was 20.61 cases per million person-years (95%CI: 19.59-21.63). An inverse correlation was observed between the number of CTG repeats and the age at genetic diagnosis (ρ=-0.547; 95%CI: -0.610 to -0.375; P<.001). CTG 5 was the most frequent polymorphic allele in healthy individuals. Of all patients with DM1, 28.3% presented the mild or asymptomatic form, 59.1% the classical form, and 12.6% the severe form. Inheritance was maternal in 35.1% of cases, paternal in 59.4%, and uncertain in 5.5%. In mild forms, frontal balding in men was the most prevalent phenotypic trait, as well as myotonia and cataracts, while in the classical form, ptosis, facial weakness, voice and pronunciation alterations, myotonia, and fatigue/sleepiness were most frequent., Conclusions: The incidence of DM1 in Aragon is significant. Multidisciplinary study of the phenotype of patients with DM1 is key to early diagnosis and personalised management., (Copyright © 2021 Sociedad Española de Neurología. Publicado por Elsevier España, S.L.U. All rights reserved.)

The interaction of CO with graphene was studied at different theoretical levels. Quantum-mechanical calculations on finite graphene models with the use of coronene for coupled cluster calculations and circumcoronene for B97D calculations showed that there was no preferential site for adsorption and that the most important factor was the orientation of CO relative to graphene. The parallel orientation was preferred, with binding energies around 9 kJ mol -1 at the CCSD(T) and B97D levels, which was in good agreement with experimental findings. From a large number of CO-circumcoronene and CO-CO interactions, computed at different distances and randomly generated orientations, parameters were fit to the improved Lennard-Jones potential. Such potentials, together with others describing the intramolecular dynamics of graphene, were subsequently employed in classical molecular-dynamics simulations of the adsorption of CO on graphene by using the canonical ensemble. The obtained results showed that the introduction of flexibility in graphene, which simulated the effects associated to curvature of the surface, diminished the adsorption level and that, as expected, adsorption also diminished with temperature., (© 2018 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.)

Buckybowls have risen as appealing fullerene fragment derivatives. Their intrinsic curvature has been exploited in the generation of host-guest supramolecular assemblies, not only through concave-convex complementarity but also through less-known concave-concave staggered arrangements. Whereas the stabilization of bowl-in-bowl dispositions has been ascribed to efficient π-π forces together with favorable dipole-dipole interactions, a detailed analysis on the forces guiding the formation of the staggered arrangements is missing so far. Herein, we present a thorough theoretical characterization of bowl-in-bowl vs staggered hemifullerene-based homodimers and heterodimers with the electron-donor truxTTF molecule, as test cases, under the density functional theory and by means of chemical bonding techniques. Our results clearly reveal strong and localized noncovalent signatures, together with an enhanced orbital interaction, associated with CH-π and sulfur-mediated interactions governing the staggered formation. Bending the fullerene fragment is demonstrated to favor the stabilization in both homo- and heterodimers, in good accord with the depletion in the π-electron density calculated upon increasing the buckybowl curvature. The optimal buckybowl curvature for the highest interaction energy is, however, dependent on the type of supramolecular assembly (bowl-in-bowl vs staggered) and the concave region to which hemifullerene approaches truxTTF. Interestingly, two regimes are found as a function of buckybowl curvature for hemifullerene homodimers: bowl-in-bowl dispositions are calculated more stable at low curvatures whereas staggered dimers prevail for highly curved buckybowls. Our results highlight the potential of discrete CH-π and sulfur-mediated interactions to generate unconventional staggered supramolecular arrangements toward the development of a new and unexplored host-guest chemistry.

A new implementation of the approximate coupled cluster singles and doubles CC2 linear response model is reported. It employs a Cholesky decomposition of the two-electron integrals that significantly reduces the computational cost and the storage requirements of the method compared to standard implementations. Our algorithm also exploits a partitioning form of the CC2 equations which reduces the dimension of the problem and avoids the storage of doubles amplitudes. We present calculation of excitation energies of benzene using a hierarchy of basis sets and compare the results with conventional CC2 calculations. The reduction of the scaling is evaluated as well as the effect of the Cholesky decomposition parameter on the quality of the results. The new algorithm is used to perform an extrapolation to complete basis set investigation on the spectroscopically interesting benzylallene conformers. A set of calculations on medium-sized molecules is carried out to check the dependence of the accuracy of the results on the decomposition thresholds. Moreover, CC2 singlet excitation energies of the free base porphin are also presented.

Although for planar conjugated hydrocarbons the out-of-plane component of proton magnetic shielding is an unquestionable quantitative aromaticity indicator, the same is not true for tetraazanaphthalenes. As in these compounds the (core + sigma)-currents associated to the nitrogen nuclei diminish the perpendicular component of shielding, abnormal values of (1)H NMR sigma(zz) are obtained. Therefore, a consistent aromaticity measure must be based only on the pi-contribution to the out-of-plane component of proton magnetic shielding. Otherwise, the behavior of these compounds in presence of an external magnetic field parallels that of naphthalene, with the nitrogen nuclei contributing to the ring current in a comparable amount to carbon nuclei. The pi-current contribution to magnetic shielding represents 6-8% of the out-of-plane shielding for nitrogen and 9-12% for carbon.

Coupled-cluster calculations are used to compute the energy of conversion between the neutral and the zwitterionic forms of beta-carboline. The stability of the different species is discussed in terms of charge separation and aromatic character, which is related to magnetic criteria. By means of a linear response formalism the vertical excitation energies and oscillator strengths of the lowest singlet states of both structures as well as of the cationic species are determined. General agreement of the relative position and intensity of the different peaks with experimental data is achieved, but the overall spectra are slightly displaced because of solvent effects.

Using correlated ab initio methods, the polarizability of large [4n+2]-annulenes is determined, showing that there exists an almost linear relation between the exaltation of magnetic susceptibility (a measure of aromaticity) and an equivalent enlargement of polarizability.

Investigations into the charge-separated states and electron-transfer transitions in tetracyanoethylene (TCNE) complexes have recently generated much interest. In this work we present theoretical calculations showing that the most stable structure of the dianion TCNE2- has D2d symmetry in vacuum as well as in the solvents dichloromethane and acetonitrile. By means of the coupled cluster linear response, we compute the vertical electronic spectrum in both the gas phase and solution. The theoretical results are compared to the experimental data and good agreement is achieved.

We present the results of an extended computational study of the electric and magnetic properties connected to Cotton-Mouton birefringences, on the trifluoro- and trichloroborides in the gas phase. The electric dipole polarizabilities, magnetizabilities, quadrupole moments, and higher-order hypersusceptibilities--expressed as quadratic and cubic frequency-dependent response functions--are computed within Hartree-Fock, density-functional, and coupled-cluster response theories employing singly and doubly augmented correlation-consistent basis sets and London orbitals in the magnetic property calculations. The results, which illustrate the capability of time-dependent density-functional theory for electron-rich systems, are compared with available experimental data. Revised values of both experimentally derived quadrupole moment of BF3, 2.72 +/- 0.15 a.u., and magnetizability anisotropy of BCl3, -0.45 +/- 0.09 a.u., both obtained in birefringence experiments that neglect the effects of higher-order hypersusceptibilities, are presented. In the theoretical limit the traceless quadrupole moments of BF3 and BCl3 are determined to be 3.00 +/- 0.01 and 0.71 +/- 0.01 a.u., respectively.

The full configuration interaction (FCI) study of the singlets vertical spectrum of the neutral beryllium trimer has been performed using atomic natural orbitals [3s2p1d] basis set. The FCI triangular equilibrium structure of the ground state has been used to calculate the FCI vertical excitation energies up to 4.8 eV. The FCI vertical ionization potential for the same geometry and basis set amounts to 7.6292 eV. The FCI dipole and quadrupole transition moments from the ground state are reported as well. The FCI electric quadrupole moment of the X (3)A(1) (') ground state has been also calculated with the same basis set (Theta(zz)=-2.6461 a.u., Theta(xx)=Theta(yy)=-1/2Theta(zz)). Twelve of the 19 calculated excited singlets are doubly excited states. Most of the states have large multiconfigurational character. These results provide benchmark values for electronic correlation multireference methods. (4ex6MO)CAS-SDCI values for the same energies and properties are also reported.

The full configuration interaction (FCI) study of the ground state of the neutral beryllium trimer has been performed using an atomic natural orbitals [3s2p1d] basis set. Both triangular and linear structures have been considered for the Be(3) cluster. The optimal geometry for the equilateral triangle has been calculated. The potential energy cut sections along the normal a(1)(') mode and one of the components of the e(') mode have then been studied. The FCI symmetric atomization potential of the linear cluster is also reported. It shows a secondary van der Waals minimum at a long bond distance. All singular points in the potential energy curves are characterized. Other properties, like dissociation energies D(e) and vibrational frequencies, have been estimated from a fourth-order fitting of a large range of points around the minima. The calculated FCI wave number values for the nu(1) and nu(2) normal modes are (467.33+/-0.43) cm(-1) and (390.77+/-0.56) cm(-1)., ((c) 2004 American Institute of Physics.)

The open shell (SC)(2)-CAS-SDCI method along with a basis set of atomic natural orbitals (ANO) has been applied for calculating the main ionization potentials of acetylene, as well as the manifold of excited states of the different symmetries up to 32 eV. In this method, the single and double excitations of a CAS space are generated and the corresponding CI matrix is corrected by means of the (SC)(2) procedure that cancels the size-extensivity error and adds some high order contributions. The mean absolute error for the outer-valence X (2)Pi(u)(1pi(u) (-1)), A (2)Sigma(g) (+)(3sigma(g) (-1)), and B (2)Sigma(u) (+)(2sigma(u) (-1)) states, and the inner-valence C (2)Sigma(g) (+)(2sigma(g) (-1)) state is 0.1 eV. The excited states of C(2)H(2) (+) corresponding to the Sigma(g) (+), Sigma(u) (+), Pi(g), Pi(u), Delta(g), and Delta(u) symmetries are reported and their composition is discussed. The results are thoroughly compared to the best available multireference CI calculations. Recent multichannel CI results by Wells and Lucchese [J Chem Phys 1999, 110, 6365] have been used also as a guide for the discussion of the results. Discrepancies in the description of many multiconfigurational states by means of the (SC)(2)-CAS-SDCI wave function as compared to previous large MR-CI calculations are significant and are, consequently, remarked on. A large mixing of the 3sigma(g) (-1) and 2sigma(g) (-1) processes is found in the A (2)Sigma(g) (+) and C (2)Sigma(g) (+) states, provided that the basis set is augmented with Rydberg functions., (Copyright 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Comput Chem 24: 609-617, 2003)

We present a quantitative evaluation of the influence of the electron transfer on the magnetic properties of mixed-valence polyoxometalates reduced by two electrons. For that purpose, we extract from valence-spectroscopy ab initio calculations on embedded fragments the value of the transfer integrals between W nearest-neighbor atoms in a mixed-valence alphaPW(12)O(40) polyoxowolframate Keggin anion. In contradiction with what is usually assumed, we show that the electron transfer between edge-sharing and corner-sharing WO(6) octahedra have very close values. Considering fragments of various ranges, we analyze the accuracy of calculations on fragments based on only two WO(5) pyramids which should allow a low cost general study of transfer parameters in polyoxometalates. Finally, these parameters are introduced in an extended Hubbard Hamiltonian that models the whole anion. It permits to prove that electron transfers induce a large energy gap between the singlet ground state and the lowest triplet states providing a clear explanation of the diamagnetic properties of the mixed-valence Keggin ions reduced by two electrons.

A new method is presented, which allows an important reduction of the size of some Configuration Interaction (CI) matrices. Starting from a Complete Active Space (CAS), the numerous configurations that have a small weight in the CAS wave function are eliminated. When excited configurations (e.g., singly and doubly excited) are added to the reference space, the resulting MR-SDCI space is reduced in the same proportion as compared with the full CAS-SDCI. A set of active orbitals is chosen, but some selection of the most relevant excitations is performed because not all the possible excitations act as SDCI generators. Thanks to a new addressing technique, the computational time is drastically reduced, because the new addressing of the selected active space is as efficient as the addressing of the CAS. The presentation of the method is followed by two test calculations on the N(2) and HCCH molecules. For the N(2) the FCI results are taken as a benchmark reference. The outer valence ionization potentials of HCCH are compared to the experimental values. Both examples allow to test the accuracy of the MR-SDCI compared to that of the corresponding CAS-SDCI, despite the noticeable reduction of the CI space. The algorithm is suitable for the dressing techniques that allow for the correction of the size-extensivity error. The corrected results are also shown and discussed., (Copyright 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Comput Chem 23: 1157-1165, 2002)

A mechanism for the reaction of the NO(3) radical with the simplest alkene, ethene, is proposed. The mechanism involves three paths leading to three main different products: oxirane, ethanal, and nitric acid. The three paths start from the same initial intermediate, an NO(3)-ethene adduct. The calculated energy barriers show that the oxirane is the product kinetically more favored. Initial analysis of the potential energy surface was made at AM1 level. Then, the geometries and characterization of the found stationary points on the surface were refined at ROHF level with a 6-31G basis set. Further refinement was carried out at CASSCF level with the same basis set, and an active space was built with five active electrons in six active orbitals.

We have selected fullerene-60 and -70 cavities as model systems in order to test several methods for characterizing inclusion molecules. The methods are based on different technical foundations such as a square and triangular tessellation of the molecule taken as a unitary sphere, spherical tessellation of the molecular surface, numerical integration of the atomic volumes and surfaces, triangular tessellation of the molecular surface, and a cubic lattice approach to a molecular space. Accurate measures of the molecular volume and surface area have been performed with the pseudo-random Monte Carlo (MCVS) and uniform Monte Carlo (UMCVS) methods. These calculations serve as a reference for the rest of the methods. The SURMO2 and MS methods have not recognized the cavities and may not be convenient for intercalation compounds. The programs that have detected the cavities never exceed 5% deviation relative to the reference values for molecular volume and surface area. The GEPOL algorithm, alone or combined with TOPO, shows results in good agreement with those of the UMCVS reference. The uniform random number generator provides the fastest convergence for UMCVS and a correct estimate of the standard deviations. The effect of the internal cavity on the accessible surfaces has been calculated.

We outline a method for the calculation of multipole moments and molecular dipole-dipole (alpha), dipole-quadrupole (A), and quadrupole-quadrupole (C) polarizabilities, which we have successfully applied to benzothiazole (A)-benzobisthiazole (B) oligomer A-B13-A. Three model rotational isomers have been characterized: (1) the fully planar (000) rotational isomer; (2) a conformation with each unit rotated 10 degrees in the alternate direction (+(-)+), and (3) a rotational isomer with each unit rotated 10 degrees in the same direction (+3). The dipole moment, mu, is smaller for isomers 000 and +(-)+ than for isomer +3. The calculation of alpha A, and C has been performed by use of the interacting induced dipoles polarization model, which calculates tensor effective anisotropic point polarizabilities (method of Applequist). The values of alpha, A, and C are in the same order of magnitude as reference calculations (PAPID) program). The values of A are rather sensitive to mu, which varies under rotation, explaining the greatest value of magnitude of Ax,xx for polar isomer +3. This rotational isomer has the maximum hydrophilic accessible surface, which would improve solubility in water. It is found that small torsional changes can enhance solubility by increasing the hydrophilic accessible surface without too much affecting the values of alpha and C. However, the torsion of the oligomer can vary the value of mu and so modify A.

Program AMYR, originally written by S. Fraga (University of Alberta, Canada), allows for the calculation of molecular associations using a pair-wise atom-atom potential. The interaction energy is evaluated through a 1/R expansion. Our improved version includes a dispersion energy term in the potential corrected by damping functions, the possibility of carrying out energy minimizations through variable metric methods, as well as the optional calculation of geometrical and topological indices. Program AMYR has been adapted also for high-performance computing and vectorization. An interactive version of the program carries out real-time molecular graphics showing simultaneously the energy profile of the calculations.