Molecular mechanics developments

The ONIOM approach (our Own N-layer Integrated molecular Orbital molecular Mechanics) developed by the Morokuma group takes an alternative approach to hybrid QM/MM. The distinct advantages of the ONIOM approach are that... 

A considerable number of experimental extensions have been developed in recent years. Luckliam et al [5] and Dan [ ] review examples of dynamic measurements in the SFA. Studying the visco-elastic response of surfactant films [ ] or adsorbed polymers [7, 9] promises to yield new insights into molecular mechanisms of frictional energy loss in boundary-lubricated systems [28, 70]. 

The complexity of polymeric systems make tire development of an analytical model to predict tlieir stmctural and dynamical properties difficult. Therefore, numerical computer simulations of polymers are widely used to bridge tire gap between tire tlieoretical concepts and the experimental results. Computer simulations can also help tire prediction of material properties and provide detailed insights into tire behaviour of polymer systems. A simulation is based on two elements a more or less detailed model of tire polymer and a related force field which allows tire calculation of tire energy and tire motion of tire system using molecular mechanisms, molecular dynamics, or Monte Carlo teclmiques 1631. 

For this reason, there has been much work on empirical potentials suitable for use on a wide range of systems. These take a sensible functional form with parameters fitted to reproduce available data. Many different potentials, known as molecular mechanics (MM) potentials, have been developed for ground-state organic and biochemical systems [58-60], They have the advantages of simplicity, and are transferable between systems, but do suffer firom inaccuracies and rigidity—no reactions are possible. Schemes have been developed to correct for these deficiencies. The empirical valence bond (EVB) method of Warshel [61,62], and the molecular mechanics-valence bond (MMVB) of Bemardi et al. [63,64] try to extend MM to include excited-state effects and reactions. The MMVB Hamiltonian is parameterized against CASSCF calculations, and is thus particularly suited to photochemistry. 

Very recently, we have developed and incorporated into the CHARMM molecular mechanics program a version of LN that uses direct-force evaluation, rather than linearization, for the fast-force components [91]. The scheme can be used in combination with SHAKE (e.g., for freezing bond lengths) and with periodic boundary conditions. Results for solvated protein and nucleic-... 

Many problems in force field investigations arise from the calculation of Coulomb interactions with fixed charges, thereby neglecting possible mutual polarization. With that obvious drawback in mind, Ulrich Sternberg developed the COSMOS (Computer Simulation of Molecular Structures) force field [30], which extends a classical molecular mechanics force field by serai-empirical charge calculation based on bond polarization theory [31, 32]. This approach has the advantage that the atomic charges depend on the three-dimensional structure of the molecule. Parts of the functional form of COSMOS were taken from the PIMM force field of Lindner et al., which combines self-consistent field theory for r-orbitals ( nr-SCF) with molecular mechanics [33, 34]. 

T. Fox, C. Chipot, A. PohorUle, The development/application of a minimalisf organic/biochemical molecular mechanic force field using a combination of ab-initio calculations and experimental data, in Computer Simulation of Biomolecular Systems. 

The accuracy of a molecular mechanics or seim-eni pineal quantum mechanics method depends on the database used to parameterize the method. This is true for the type of molecules and the physical and chemical data in the database. Frequently, these methods give the best results for a limited class of molecules or phen omen a. A disad van tage of these methods is that you m u si have parameters available before running a calculation. Developing param eiers is time-consuming. 

Many molecular mechanics potentials were developed at a time when it was computationally impractical to add large numbers of discrete water m olecules to ih e calcu la Lion to sim ulate th e effect of ac ueous media. As such, tech n iq ties cam e into place that were intended to Lake into account the effect of solvent in some fashion. These tech niqiieswcre difficult to justify physically but they were used n cvcrth eless. 

Most researchers do not parameterize force fields because many good force fields have already been developed. On rare occasions, a researcher will add an additional atom as described in Chapter 29. The following are some commonly used molecular mechanics force fields. Many of these have been implemented in more than one software package. There tend to be minor differences in the implementation leading to small differences in results from one software package to another. 

NWChem (we tested Version 3.2.1) is a program for ah initio, band-structure, molecular mechanics, and molecular dynamics calculations. The DFT band-structure capability is still under development and was not included in the Linux version tested. NWChem is unique in that it was designed from scratch for efficient parallel execution. The user agreement is more restrictive than most, apparently because the code is still under active development. At the time of this book s publication, limited support was available for users outside of the EMSL facility. 

The first widely used molecular mechanics pro gram was developed by Professor N L Allinger of the University of Georgia and was known in its various versions as MM2 MM3 and so on They have been re fined to the extent that many structural features can be calculated more easily and more accurately than they can be measured experimentally... 

Example Jensen and Gorden calculated the potential energy surface of glycine using ab initio and semi-empirical methods.This study is of special interest to developers of molecular mechanics force fields. They frequently check their molecular mechanics methods by comparing their results with ab initio and semi-empir-ical calculations for small amino acids. 

Molecular mechanics depends on the concept of atom types and parameters associated with these atom types. Since the number of atom types is very large for the universe of possible molecules, parameters will probably be missing for a random new molecule unless a force field has been developed for molecules similar to the new molecule. Molecular mechanics predicts how the new molecule will behave based upon the behavior of known, similar molecules. 

Combined Quantum and Molecular Mechanical Simulations. A recentiy developed technique is one wherein a molecular dynamics simulation includes the treatment of some part of the system with a quantum mechanical technique. This approach, QM/MM, is similar to the coupled quantum and molecular mechanical methods introduced by Warshel and Karplus (45) and at the heart of the MMI, MMP2, and MM3 programs by AUinger (60). These latter programs use quantum mechanical methods to treat the TT-systems of the stmctures in question separately from the sigma framework. 

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