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Absolute Minimum (absolute + minimum)
Selected AbstractsA world-wide study of high altitude treeline temperaturesJOURNAL OF BIOGEOGRAPHY, Issue 5 2004Christian Körner Abstract Aim, At a coarse scale, the treelines of the world's mountains seem to follow a common isotherm, but the evidence for this has been indirect so far. Here we aim at underpinning this with facts. Location, We present the results of a data-logging campaign at 46 treeline sites between 68° N and 42° S. Methods, We measured root-zone temperatures with an hourly resolution over 1,3 years per site between 1996 and 2003. Results, Disregarding taxon-, landuse- or fire-driven tree limits, high altitude climatic treelines are associated with a seasonal mean ground temperature of 6.7 °C (±0.8 SD; 2.2 K amplitude of means for different climatic zones), a surprisingly narrow range. Temperatures are higher (7,8 °C) in the temperate and Mediterranean zone treelines, and are lower in equatorial treelines (5,6 °C) and in the subarctic and boreal zone (6,7 °C). While air temperatures are higher than soil temperatures in warm periods, and are lower than soil temperatures in cold periods, daily means of air and soil temperature are almost the same at 6,7 °C, a physics driven coincidence with the global mean temperature at treeline. The length of the growing season, thermal extremes or thermal sums have no predictive value for treeline altitude on a global scale. Some Mediterranean (Fagus spp.) and temperate South Hemisphere treelines (Nothofagus spp.) and the native treeline in Hawaii (Metrosideros) are located at substantially higher isotherms and represent genus-specific boundaries rather than boundaries of the life-form tree. In seasonal climates, ground temperatures in winter (absolute minima) reflect local snow pack and seem uncritical. Main conclusions, The data support the hypothesis of a common thermal threshold for forest growth at high elevation, but also reflect a moderate region and substantial taxonomic influence. [source] GSA algorithm applied to electronic structure: Hartree,Fock,GSA methodINTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF QUANTUM CHEMISTRY, Issue 5 2005M. D. de Andrade Abstract A stochastical algorithm to investigate the real closed-shell Hartree,Fock problem is proposed. The approach is based on a global optimization method, the generalized simulated annealing. We tested this methodology by determining the Hartree,Fock ground state of the H2, LiH, BH, Li2, OH,, FH, CO, N2, BeH2, CH2, H2O, NH3, HCHO, CH4 molecular systems using minimal, double-zeta, and triple-zeta bases. The main characteristic of this method is that it enables mapping the electronic hypersurface to find minima with the guarantee of finding the absolute minimum of the functional in focus. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Int J Quantum Chem, 2005 [source] Quantum mechanical study of the conformational behavior of proline and 4R-hydroxyproline dipeptide analogues in vacuum and in aqueous solutionJOURNAL OF COMPUTATIONAL CHEMISTRY, Issue 3 2002Caterina Benzi The conformational behavior of the title compounds has been investigated by Hartree,Fock, MP2, and DFT computations on the most significant structures related to variations of the backbone dihedral angles, cis/trans isomerism around the peptide bond, and diastereoisomeric puckering of the pyrrolidine ring. In vacuum the reversed , turn (,l), characterized by an intramolecular hydrogen bridge, corresponds to the absolute energy minimum for both puckerings (up and down) of the pyrrolidine ring. An additional energy minimum is found in the helix region, but only for an up puckering of the pyrrolidine ring. When solvent effects are included by means of the polarizable continuum model the conformer observed experimentally in condensed phases becomes the absolute minimum. The down puckering is always favored over its up counterpart, albeit by different amounts (0.4,0.5 kcal/mol for helical structures and about 2 kcal/mol for ,l structures). In helical structures cis arrangements of the peptide bond are only slightly less stable than their trans counterparts. This is no longer true for ,l structures, because the formation of an intramolecular hydrogen bond is possible only for trans peptide bonds. In most cases, proline and hydroxyproline show the same general trends; however, the electronegative 4(R) substituent of hydroxyproline leads to a strong preference for up puckerings irrespective of the backbone conformation. © 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Comput Chem 23: 341,350, 2002 [source] Systematic conformational search analysis of the SRR and RRR epimers of 7-hydroxymatairesinolJOURNAL OF PHYSICAL ORGANIC CHEMISTRY, Issue 2 2010Giovanni Li Manni Abstract An extensive and systematic conformational search was performed on the two epimers of the natural lignan 7-hydroxymatairesinol (HMR), by means of a home-made Systematic Conformational Search Analysis (SCSA) code, designed to select more and more stable conformers through sequential geometry optimization of trial structures at increasing levels of calculation theory. In the present case, the starting molecular structures were selected by the semi-empirical AM1 method and filtered , i.e. decreased in number by choosing the more stable species , on the basis of their energy calculated by the HF method and the 6-31G(d) basis set. The geometries obtained were further refined by performing density functional theory (DFT) optimizations, using the B3LYP functional and the 6-31G(d,p) basis set, both in vacuo and in ethanol solution. This procedure allowed us to isolate, at a high level of theory, three groups of epimer conformers characterized by open, semi-folded, and folded conformations. Moreover, the SCSA allowed us to describe a conformational space made-up by about 20 species for each of the two epimers. The corresponding energy content of these species was within 27,kJ,mol,1 from the absolute minimum found, both in vacuo and in ethanol solution. The conformational analysis, followed by the inspection of the stereochemistry of the two most stable conformers of both epimers, provides support in rationalizing the proposed reaction mechanism of the catalytic hydrogenolysis of the HMR to matairesinol (MAT). Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] | ||||||||||