Active nematic liquid crystals simulated by particle-based mesoscopic methods.

Two Multi-particle collision dynamics algorithms that simulate nematic liquid crystals are generalised to reproduce active behaviour. One of the algorithms is due to Shendruk and Yeomans and is based on particles that carry an orientation vector ordered by a mean-field energy [T. N.

Union is strength: antiviral and anti-inflammatory drugs for COVID-19.

• Treatment for moderately ill COVID-19 patients might arise from drug repurposing. • RdRp, spike protein, and M are relevant SARS-CoV-2 molecular targets. • Targeting human furin may contain viral infection and inflammation.

Properties of noncovalent tetraphenylporphine···C60 dyads as studied by different long-range and dispersion-corrected DFT functionals.

The noncovalent dyad of tetraphenylporphine and C60 fullerene (H2TPP···C60) and the tetraphenylporphine dimer (H2TPP···H2TPP) were studied by density functional theory (DFT), using functionals that incorporate empirical dispersion correction (DFT-D), functionals that use a long-range correction (LC) scheme, a hybrid functional (B3LYP) and a highly parametrized empirical exchange-correlation functional (M05-2X). The results were compared to X-ray structures and interaction energies reported in previous experimental and theoretical studies. It was found that B3LYP and CAM-B3LYP functionals fail to reproduce the X-ray structures and binding energies of the TPP···C60 system.

Assessment of hydrophobic interactions and their contributions through the analysis of the methane dimer.

Hydrophobic Interactions (HIs) are important in many phenomena of molecular recognition in chemistry and biology. Still, the relevance of HIs is sometimes difficult to evaluate particularly in large systems and intramolecular interactions. We put forward a method to estimate the magnitude and the different contributions of a given HI of the C···C, H-C···H, and H···H type through (i) the analysis of the electron density in the intermolecular region for eleven relative orientations of the methane dimer and (ii) the subsequent decomposition of the corresponding interaction energy in physically significant contributions using Symmetry Adapted Perturbation Theory (SAPT).