Triplet repeat polymorphism & fragile X syndrome in the Indian context

Mental retardation due to fragile X syndrome is one of the genetic disorders caused by tripler repeat expansion, CGG repeat involved in this disease is known to exhibit polymorphism even among normal individuals. Here we describe the development of suitable probes for detection of polymorphism in CGG repeat at FMR1 locus as well as the diagnosis of fragile X syndrome. Using these methods polymorphism at the FMR1 locus has been examined in 161 individuals. Ninety eight patients with unclassified mental retardation were examined, of whom 7 were found to have the expanded (CGG) allele at the FMR1 locus, The hybridization pattern for two patients has been presented as representative data.

Modelling studies on neurodegenerative disease causing triplet repeat sequences d(CGG/GCC) and d(CAG/CTG): Duplexes vs Quadruplexes

Model building and molecular mechanics studies have been carried out to examine the potential structures for d(GGC/GCC)5 and d(CAG/CTG)5 that might relate to their biological function and association with triplet repeat expansion diseases. Model building studies suggested that hairpin and quadruplex structures could be formed with these repeat sequences. Molecular mechanics studies have demonstrated that the hairpin and hairpin dimmer structures of triplet repeat sequences formed by looping out of the two strands are as favourable as the corresponding B-DNA type hetero duplex structures. Further, at high salt condition, Greek key type quadruplex structures are energetically comparable with hairpin dimer and B-DNA type duplex structures. All tetrads in the quadruplex structures are well stacked and provide favourable stacking energy values. Interestingly, in the energy minimized hairpin dimer and Greek key type quadruplex structures, all the bases even in the non-G tetrads are cyclically hydrogen bonded, even though the A, C and T-tetrads were not hydrogen bonded in the starting structures.

Homogeneous isotropic turbulence: large momentum expansion

High temperature expansion is an effective tool for studying second order phase transitions. With this in mind, we have looked at a high momentum expansion for homogeneous isotropic turbulence. Combining our results with those of the inertial range, we give another view of extended self-similarity (ESS).

A comment on the consistency of truncated nonlinear integral equation based theories of freezing

We report the results of two studies of aspects of the consistency of truncated nonlinear integral equation based theories of freezing: (i) We show that the self-consistent solutions to these nonlinear equations are unfortunately sensitive to the level of truncation. For the hard sphere system, if the Wertheim–Thiele representation of the pair direct correlation function is used, the inclusion of part but not all of the triplet direct correlation function contribution, as has been common, worsens the predictions considerably. We also show that the convergence of the solutions found, with respect to number of reciprocal lattice vectors kept in the Fourier expansion of the crystal singlet density, is slow. These conclusions imply great sensitivity to the quality of the pair direct correlation function employed in the theory. (ii) We show the direct correlation function based and the pair correlation function based theories of freezing can be cast into a form which requires solution of isomorphous nonlinear integral equations. However, in the pair correlation function theory the usual neglect of the influence of inhomogeneity of the density distribution on the pair correlation function is shown to be inconsistent to the lowest order in the change of density on freezing, and to lead to erroneous predictions. The Journal of Chemical Physics is copyrighted by The American Institute of Physics.

A comment on the consistency of truncated nonlinear integral equation based theories of freezing

We report the results of two studies of aspects of the consistency of truncated nonlinear integral equation based theories of freezing: (i) We show that the self-consistent solutions to these nonlinear equations are unfortunately sensitive to the level of truncation. For the hard sphere system, if the Wertheim–Thiele representation of the pair direct correlation function is used, the inclusion of part but not all of the triplet direct correlation function contribution, as has been common, worsens the predictions considerably. We also show that the convergence of the solutions found, with respect to number of reciprocal lattice vectors kept in the Fourier expansion of the crystal singlet density, is slow. These conclusions imply great sensitivity to the quality of the pair direct correlation function employed in the theory. (ii) We show the direct correlation function based and the pair correlation function based theories of freezing can be cast into a form which requires solution of isomorphous nonlinear integral equations. However, in the pair correlation function theory the usual neglect of the influence of inhomogeneity of the density distribution on the pair correlation function is shown to be inconsistent to the lowest order in the change of density on freezing, and to lead to erroneous predictions. The Journal of Chemical Physics is copyrighted by The American Institute of Physics.

Transmission loss analysis of rectangular expansion chamber with arbitrary location of inlet/outlet by means of Green's functions

Transmission loss of a rectangular expansion chamber, the inlet and outlet of which are situated at arbitrary locations of the chamber, i.e., the side wall or the face of the chamber, are analyzed here based on the Green's function of a rectangular cavity with homogeneous boundary conditions. The rectangular chamber Green's function is expressed in terms of a finite number of rigid rectangular cavity mode shapes. The inlet and outlet ports are modeled as uniform velocity pistons. If the size of the piston is small compared to wavelength, then the plane wave excitation is a valid assumption. The velocity potential inside the chamber is expressed by superimposing the velocity potentials of two different configurations. The first configuration is a piston source at the inlet port and a rigid termination at the outlet, and the second one is a piston at the outlet with a rigid termination at the inlet. Pressure inside the chamber is derived from velocity potentials using linear momentum equation. The average pressure acting on the pistons at the inlet and outlet locations is estimated by integrating the acoustic pressure over the piston area in the two constituent configurations. The transfer matrix is derived from the average pressure values and thence the transmission loss is calculated. The results are verified against those in the literature where use has been made of modal expansions and also numerical models (FEM fluid). The transfer matrix formulation for yielding wall rectangular chambers has been derived incorporating the structural–acoustic coupling. Parametric studies are conducted for different inlet and outlet configurations, and the various phenomena occurring in the TL curves that cannot be explained by the classical plane wave theory, are discussed.

Strong-coupling expansion for the momentum distribution of the Bose-Hubbard model with benchmarking against exact numerical results

A strong-coupling expansion for the Green's functions, self-energies, and correlation functions of the Bose-Hubbard model is developed. We illustrate the general formalism, which includes all possible (normal-phase) inhomogeneous effects in the formalism, such as disorder or a trap potential, as well as effects of thermal excitations. The expansion is then employed to calculate the momentum distribution of the bosons in the Mott phase for an infinite homogeneous periodic system at zero temperature through third order in the hopping. By using scaling theory for the critical behavior at zero momentum and at the critical value of the hopping for the Mott insulator–to–superfluid transition along with a generalization of the random-phase-approximation-like form for the momentum distribution, we are able to extrapolate the series to infinite order and produce very accurate quantitative results for the momentum distribution in a simple functional form for one, two, and three dimensions. The accuracy is better in higher dimensions and is on the order of a few percent relative error everywhere except close to the critical value of the hopping divided by the on-site repulsion. In addition, we find simple phenomenological expressions for the Mott-phase lobes in two and three dimensions which are much more accurate than the truncated strong-coupling expansions and any other analytic approximation we are aware of. The strong-coupling expansions and scaling-theory results are benchmarked against numerically exact quantum Monte Carlo simulations in two and three dimensions and against density-matrix renormalization-group calculations in one dimension. These analytic expressions will be useful for quick comparison of experimental results to theory and in many cases can bypass the need for expensive numerical simulations.

Analysis of EXCOBULLE two-phase expansion tests

analysis of a complex physical problem and the close agreement they achieved with observations. However, the following points need to be clarified. First of all the authors assume that during the initial phases of expansion, the Tayior's instability sets in due to the acceleraacceleration of lighter fluid against the more dense cold water.

Singlet and triplet molecular interaction in excimers

A perturbative approach is developed to determine, term by term, the contributions of the various forces to the excimer potentials of the singlet and triplet excimers. The results show that the singlet excimer of naphthalene is more stable than the corresponding triplet excimer primarily due to large contributions of the exciton-resonance and the dispersion energy terms. The variation of the various terms with the conformations of the excimers suggests that the singlet and triplet excimers of naphthalene cannot have identical structure.

Triplet-state Photophysics and Transient Photochemistry of Cyclic Enethiones A Laser Flash Photolysis Study

The triplets of four cyclic enethiones, including thiocoumarin, have been investigated by nanosecond laser flash photolysis. Data are presented for transient spectra and kinetics associated with triplets, quantum yields of intersystem crossing and singlet oxygen photosensitization. The quenching of the thiocoumarin triplet (A:, = 485 nm, E:,, = 8.8 x lo3 dm3 mol-' cm-'in benzene) by several olefins, amines and hydrogen donors occurs with rate constants of 107-5 x lo9 dm3 mol-' s-'; the lower limits of quantum yields ( c#+~) for the related photoreactions, estimated from ground-state depletion, are generally small (0.0-0.1 1 in benzene, except for good hydrogen donors, namely, p-methoxythiophenol and tri-n-butylstannane) . The radical anion of thiocoumarin (A,,, = 405-435 nm) is formed in two stages upon triplet quenching by triethylamine in acetonitrile; the fast component is the result of direct electron transfer to the triplet and the slower component is assigned to secondary photoreduction of the thione ground state by the a-aminoalkyl radical derived from the triethylamine radical-cation.

Ultrasonic velocities and thermal expansion coefficients of amorphous Se80Te20 and Se90Te10 alloys near glass transitions

Precise measurements of the ultrasonic velocities and thermal expansivities of amorphous Se80Te20 and Se90Te10 alloys are reported near the glass transition. The samples are produced by liquid quenching. The longitudinal and transverse velocities are measured at 10 MHz frequency using the McSkimin pulse superposition technique. The thermal expansivities,agr, are measured using a three-terminal capacitance bridge. Theagr-values show a sharp maximum near the glass transition temperature,T g. The ultrasonic velocities also show a large temperature derivative, dV/dT nearT g. The data are discussed in terms of existing theories of the glass transition. The continuous change inagr shows that the glass transition is not a first-order transition, as suggested by some theories. The samples are found to be deformed by small loads nearT g. The ultrasonic velocities and dV/dT have contributions arising from this deformation.

Oxidations of thio ketones by singlet and triplet oxygen

Oxidation of di-tert-butyl thioketone (1) and 2,2,4,4-tetramethylcyclobutylth ioketone (2) by singlet oxygen yields the corresponding sulfine and ketone; in the case of 1 the sulfine is the major product, whereas in 2 it is the ketone. 1,2,3-Dioxathietane has been suggested as the precursor for the ketones, and the zwitterionic/diradid peroxide is believed to be a common primary intermediate for both sulfine and ketone. Steric influence is felt both during primary interaction between singlet oxygen and thioketone and during the partitioning of the peroxide intermediate. Steric interaction is suggested as the reason for variations in the product distribution between 1 and 2. Singlet oxygen is also generated through energy transfer from the triplet state of thioketones. These excited states also directly react with oxygen to yield ketone.

Ultrasonic velocities and thermal expansion coefficients of amorphous Se80Te20 and Se90Te10 alloys near glass transitions

Precise measurements of the ultrasonic velocities and thermal expansivities of amorphous Se80Te20 and Se90Te10 alloys are reported near the glass transition. The samples are produced by liquid quenching. The longitudinal and transverse velocities are measured at 10 MHz frequency using the McSkimin pulse superposition technique. The thermal expansivities,agr, are measured using a three-terminal capacitance bridge. Theagr-values show a sharp maximum near the glass transition temperature,T g. The ultrasonic velocities also show a large temperature derivative, dV/dT nearT g. The data are discussed in terms of existing theories of the glass transition. The continuous change inagr shows that the glass transition is not a first-order transition, as suggested by some theories. The samples are found to be deformed by small loads nearT g. The ultrasonic velocities and dV/dT have contributions arising from this deformation.

Oxidations of thio ketones by singlet and triplet oxygen

Oxidation of di-tert-butyl thioketone (1) and 2,2,4,4-tetramethylcyclobutylth ioketone (2) by singlet oxygen yields the corresponding sulfine and ketone; in the case of 1 the sulfine is the major product, whereas in 2 it is the ketone. 1,2,3-Dioxathietane has been suggested as the precursor for the ketones, and the zwitterionic/diradid peroxide is believed to be a common primary intermediate for both sulfine and ketone. Steric influence is felt both during primary interaction between singlet oxygen and thioketone and during the partitioning of the peroxide intermediate. Steric interaction is suggested as the reason for variations in the product distribution between 1 and 2. Singlet oxygen is also generated through energy transfer from the triplet state of thioketones. These excited states also directly react with oxygen to yield ketone.