Absorbing potentials, molecular

D. Neuhauser, Molecular scattering-Very-short-range imaginary potentials, absorbing potentials, and flux-amplitude expressions./. Chem. Phys. 103 8513 (1995). 

This work is intended as an introduction to these topics and a tutorial guide to performing quantum chemistry calculations intended to model these types of molecular systems and phenomena. The focus here is on methods that are readily available in standard quantum chemistry software packages and thus, for example, we will discuss the calculation of resonance states using modifications of bound-state methodology, since bound states are what one computes in traditional quantum chemistry. Alternative formalisms such as scattering theory or the explicit treatment of the interaction of a discrete state with a continuum state will not be discussed here. The use of complex absorbing potentials- is discussed only briefly. 

The motion of particles of the film and substrate were calculated by standard molecular dynamics techniques. In the simulations discussed here, our purpose is to calculate equilibrium or metastable configurations of the system at zero Kelvin. For this purpose, we have applied random and dissipative forces to the particles. Finite random forces provide the thermal motion which allows the system to explore different configurations, and the dissipation serves to stabilize the system at a fixed temperature. The potential energy minima are populated by reducing the random forces to zero, thus permitting the dissipation to absorb the kinetic energy. 

The bioaccessibility of a compound can be defined as the result of complex processes occurring in the lumen of the gut to transfer the compound from a non-digested form into a potentially absorbable form. For carotenoids, these different processes include the disruption of the food matrix, the disruption of molecular linkage, the uptake in lipid droplets, and finally the formation and uptake in micelles. Thus, the bioaccessibility of carotenoids and other lipophilic pigments from foods can be characterized by the efficiency of their incorporation into the micellar fraction in the gut. The fate of a compound from its presence in food to its absorbable form is affected by many factors that must be known in order to understand and predict the efficiency of a compound s bioaccessibility and bioavailability from a certain meal. ... 

Although the above profusion of in vivo studies evidence their health potentialities, the problem of the bioavailabihty of proanthocyanidins supplied by dietary supplementation has still not been completely resolved since unequivocal evidence for absorption is missing so far [11]. However, studies carried out using radio-labelled procyanidins revealed that dimers and trimers may be absorbed by intestinal cells, whereas a recent study demonstrated that procyanidin oligomers are readily adsorbed in rats [55], while it has been shown that colon microflora may be able to degrade proanthocyanidins to low-molecular-weight aromatic compounds [56]. 

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