Towards More Reliable 13C and 1H Chemical Shift Prediction: A Systematic Comparison of Neural Network and Least Squares Regression Based Approaches

Towards More Reliable 13C and 1H Chemical Shift Prediction: A Systematic Comparison
of Neural Network and Least Squares Regression Based Approaches

Yegor D. Smurnyy§, Kirill A. Blinov§, Tatiana S. Churanova§,
Mikhail E. Elyashberg§, Antony J. Williams*,‡,●

§
Advanced Chemistry Development, Moscow Department, 6 Akademik Bakulev Street, Moscow
117513, Russian Federation.
‡
Advanced Chemistry Development, Inc., 110 Yonge Street, 14th Floor, Toronto, Ont., Canada
M5C 1T4
●
Current address: ChemZoo Inc., 904 Tamaras Circle, Wake Forest, NC-27587

Abstract
The efficacy of neural network (NN) and partial least squares (PLS) methods is compared
for the prediction of NMR chemical shifts for both 1H and 13C nuclei using very large databases
containing millions of chemical shifts. The chemical structure description scheme used in this
work is based on individual atoms rather than functional groups. The performances of each of
the methods were optimized in a systematic manner described in this work. Both of the methods,
least squares and neural network analysis, produce results of a very similar quality but the least
squares algorithm is approximately 2-3 times faster.

1. Introduction
The accurate and robust prediction of NMR chemical shifts has both practical and theoretical
interest. The de novo structure elucidation of natural products, the verification of chemical
structures contained within synthetic libraries, and the potential for enhancing the experience of
chemical education are just a few areas which could derive value from NMR shift prediction.
NMR prediction is now a tool utilized not only by NMR spectroscopists but also by synthetic
chemists. Contemporary robotic open access spectrometers provide convenient access to both 1D
and 2D NMR for chemists to assist in structure verification and elucidation. 1H and 13C 1D spectra
are the primary tools utilized by chemists for structure verification and provision of prediction
tools provides reasonable to excellent accuracy in the quality of NMR prediction (vide infra) and
thereby provide a means to speed up the analysis of spectra using a strong basis of prior
knowledge. In recent years the utilization of NMR chemical shift prediction as an integral part of
an expert system intended for computer-aided structure elucidation (CASE) has been common. For

1

this purpose both 13C and 1H NMR spectral predictions are used for the identification of the most
probable structure (see review1 and ref.2, 3).
Historically, two main classes of algorithms have been developed: database-based and
rules-based prediction algorithms. For the first approach a large database of chemical structures
with associated chemical shifts is compiled. For each structure a descriptor is assigned which
reflects its major structural features. Then, when the database is queried with the descriptor,
similar structures are identified and the resulting values are weighted averages of the
experimental data corresponding to these structures. A number of commercial databases and
associated prediction software are currently available including CSEARCH4,5, ACD/Labs6,
SpecInfo7 as well as a publicly available database known as NMRShiftDB8. The most popular
structure description algorithm is the HOSE-code9 (Hierarchical Organization of Spherical
Environments), despite its supposed poor performance with unusual structures and the slow
speed of prediction due to relatively slow database engines.
Another class of algorithm utilizes a database to extract a set of additivity rules which
allow for the rapid calculation of chemical shift values for atoms of interest. In an ideal case
these algorithms would perform similarly upon a diverse set of chemical structures. This
approach was originally suggested in 1964 in the pioneering work of Grant and Paul10 for the
prediction of the 13C chemical shifts of alkanes. The method was then extended to many different
classes of organic compounds and then also applied to 1H chemical shift prediction: Reed
presented a scheme for the prediction of chemical shifts in substituted benzenes11. The prediction
rules published in the literature were later generalized in the monograph of Pretsch et al12. The
13
first computer program for C chemical shift prediction on the basis of additivity rules was
presented by Clerc and Sommerauer13. Later, Pretsch and co-workers developed programs to
13
provide fast prediction of both C and 1H chemical shifts14-18. Traditionally least-squares
regression techniques have been used19, 20 to formulate the rules. However, since the 1990s there
have been increasing efforts by researchers to use neural networks as an alternative and
potentially more flexible and powerful approach 21-23.
Despite decades of intensive research there are a number of questions not yet fully
addressed in the field of neural network applications. First, very few research groups (for
example, ref.24) have systematically compared available approaches such as Partial Least
Squares (PLS) vs Neural Networks (NN). Second, many studies23, 25-27 focus on a limited class of
compounds. This approach biases the results due to the lack of structural variability but severely
limits practical applications. Third, we believe that it is necessary to separate the two parts of an
algorithm: a) encoding a chemical structure into a numerical input: the number and nature of the
descriptors, the involvement of stereochemistry, etc. and b) the regression process, either by least

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square methods or neural network methods. These two parts should be evaluated and compared
separately as is discussed in this work but, to the best of our knowledge, absent in earlier works.
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In this article we seek to address each of the abovementioned issues using C chemical
shifts as the data for analysis. We initially optimized the description scheme used throughout our
studies then the parameters affecting the performance of the neural networks were tuned to
achieve optimal performance. We then compared both PLS and neural networks using one of the
largest available databases6 for the purpose of training. Finally, we applied our findings from our
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studies for C chemical shifts to examine the performance of 1H chemical shift prediction to
demonstrate the general applicability of our findings.

2. Methods

2.1. Databases
The carbon and proton chemical shift databases used in this work are comprised of
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approximately 2 million C and 1.2 million 1H chemical shift values respectively. Care was
taken to avoid overlap between the datasets used for NN training and comparison. The training
dataset was compiled using experimental data published from the early 1990s until 2004.
Spectral assignments were taken from articles published in a number of journals, including J.
Org. Chem., Tetrahedron, J. Nat. Prod. etc. During each run 3% of the dataset were randomly
chosen to be used as a test set during training. A comparison of the algorithms reported in this
article were performed using a completely independent database compiled from data originally
published in 2005 and consisting of approximately 118,000 13C and 116,000 1H chemical shifts.

2.2. Algorithms
The effectiveness of different neural network configurations was tested using custom
scripts written in the MATLAB programming language (v.6.0., The MathWorks, Natick, MA)
and using the associated Neural Networks toolbox. The neural network and partial least square
regression algorithms were then coded using the Borland Delphi 5.0 environment, Object Pascal
and assembler programming languages. The LAPACK library28 was used for matrix
computations. The detailed mathematical descriptions of neural network29 and non-linear
regression30 analyses can be found elsewhere. All programs were executed on Intel PC
workstations running under the Windows XP operating system using CPUs operating with clock
speeds of 1.8-3.2 GHz and 1-4 GBytes of memory installed.
All of the neural networks tested in this work include an input layer, 1-4 hidden layers,
and a single output neuron. Logistic or hyperbolic tangent activation functions were used.

3

Networks were trained using the standard back-propagation algorithm29. Weights were updated
after processing each pattern with both the training speed and the momentum set to 0.5. Neural
network input and output values were assumed to be within the interval of [0;1]. The tri-linear
function shown in Figure 1 was used to map an arbitrary interval onto [0;1]. This choice is due to
the simplicity and robustness of the function. Simultaneously this tri-linear function allows the
algorithm to cover a wider interval than a simple linear function. Such a tri-linear scaling scheme
allows the prediction of chemical shift values up to four standard deviations away from the mean
value which, assuming a Gaussian distribution of values, accounts for 99.9% of the data.
For the network inputs xi the corresponding values of an average of a aver i
x aver and the

associated standard deviations were calculated using all available training patterns in which the
input has a non-zero value. The values for the chemical shifts were calculated using all available
training patterns subsequently used for reverse transformation from the [0;1] output to a
chemical shift value in ppm delivered to the user.

Figure 1. The tri-linear function used to map the input values onto the [0;1] interval utilized by
our neural networks. aaver is the mean value of the a variable and σ is the standard deviation.

2.3. Data encoding
To encode a chemical structure into a numerical representation an atom-based scheme was used
as shown in Figure 2.

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Figure 2. The encoding of the atom environment. The three nearest spheres are marked as cyan,
green and yellow circles and the Roman numerals denoting the number of each sphere are
shown. Atom no. 1 is the central atom. The blue numbers are assigned arbitrarily and serve as
references (see the text for more details).

The environment surrounding an atom is divided into spheres, each including all atoms and
separated from the center by a definite number of covalent bonds. In our work we typically
account for the nearest 6 spheres or less. Every atom within a sphere is classified into one of the
predefined atomic classes described in Table 1. The scheme was inspired by earlier works in this
field22, 24. We have added extra features such as a more complete list of non-typical atoms and
the ability to take solvents into account in the prediction algorithm.
Some additional parameters improve chemical shift prediction for atoms included in
conjugated systems. For the purpose of this work we define a conjugated system as atoms
forming conjugated double bonds plus all of their immediate neighbors. If a central atom
participates in a system then all other atoms in the system are marked with a special flag. For
example, in the molecule shown in Figure 2 the central atom marked as no. 1 is part of a
conjugated system. As a result atoms 3, 4, 9, 12 (the diene system) and their neighbors 1 (the
center), 13 and 15 will be marked. Note that atoms 6, 7, 16 and 17 are not marked since they are
separated from the central atom by two σ-bonds. Additional flags were also used to take into
account double bond stereochemistry. If we use atom 4 as the central atom then atoms 13 and 15
both lie in the third sphere and both have equivalent descriptors. The addition of stereo
descriptors allows these atoms to be distinguished. Atom 15 lies on the same side as the atom of
the double bond marked by 9-12 while atom 13 lies on the opposite side. Atom 15 is therefore
marked as the Z atom, while atom 13 is marked as the E atom.
Stereochemical descriptors are not implemented systematically throughout the system.
However, a separate flag is set for atoms which are one bond away from a 3-6 membered

5

aliphatic ring. These atoms are classified as located either on the same or opposite side of a ring.
In the molecule shown in Figure 2 atom 10 lies on the same side of the five-membered ring made
up of atoms 2, 6, 7, 8 and 5 while atom 11 lies on the opposite side relative to the central atom 1.
This method obviously can be only be used for relatively rigid rings and is inapplicable to the
stereochemistry of flexible systems such as large rings and chains.
In many cases so-called "cross-increments" were used. These refer to pairs of atoms - for
each two atoms separated by a small number of bonds an independent identifier is generated and
stored. In this study we considered pairs separated by 1-3 bonds, or by 1-4 bonds in conjugated
systems, with both atoms located within the first 3-4 spheres. For example, if we use atom 1 as
the central atom then the following pairs of atoms: 3-14, 3-2, 2-14 (in the first sphere) and 3-4, 2-
6, 2-5, 3-6, 3-5, 2-4, 5-6, 4-14, 5-14 and 6-14 in the second sphere should be taken into account.
Atom pairs 4-5 and 4-6 are ignored since the distance between the atoms is too long in this case
– 4 bonds. The distance between atom and sphere numbers are also used to describe cross-
increments. For example, the atom pair 3-4 are both CH (sp2 hybridized) and lie in the first and
second spheres correspondingly and are separated by one bond. The atom pair 3-6, also both CH
(sp2 hybridized) lie in the first and second spheres and are separated by three bonds.

Table 1. Atomic classes used to classify atoms. The adjective “aromatic" means that the atom is
within an aromatic system. The symbol "(n-)X" designates that n single bonds are attached to the
X atom.

Carbon sp3 (C, CH, CH2, CH3), sp2 (C, CH, CH2), sp (C, =C=), aromatic (C, CH),
carbonyl.
Heteroatoms (3-)N, (2-)NH, NH2, =NH, N(sp), N(V), aromatic N, (2-)O, OH, =O, (3-)P,
P(V), (2-)S, =S, S(IV), S(VI), F, Cl, Br, I.
Exotic elements Si, Ge, Sn, (2-)Se, =Se, (2-)Te, =Te, B, As(III), As(V), Sb(III).
Solvent CHCl3, CH2Cl2, C6H6, (CH3)2SO, dioxane, CH3OH, CH3NO2,
tetrahydrofuran, cyclohexane, (CH3)2CO, CH3CN, (CH3)2CONH2,
pyridine, CF3COOH, CH3COOH, C6H5NO2, C6H5CH3, CCl4, CS2, H2O,
other/unknown.
Other parameters Formal positive charge, formal negative charge, total count of hydrogen
atoms, total count of ring closures, involvement into the same π-conjugated
system with the central atom, Z or E double bond, stereochemistry.

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3. Results and discussion.

3.1. Optimization of the neural network performance
Since the performance of neural network algorithms depends on a large set of factors we
first performed a set of test calculations to try and establish an optimal parameter set using a
smaller test dataset. For this purpose we randomly selected 32,000 structures from the main
training database. We also questioned whether a neural network would benefit from the inclusion
of cross-increments. One could argue that since neurons in hidden layers receive inputs from all
input neurons weights can be adjusted to take into account of the simultaneous occurrence of
specific atomic types. For example, the carbonyl and the hydroxyl group together would
represent a carboxylic group and would render cross-increments unnecessary.
Using a MATLAB implementation of the neural network algorithms we set up eighteen test
runs while varying a few parameters in order to investigate the variation in performance as a
result of changes in the different parameters.
The number of cross-increments varied as: 1) none, 2) pairs of atoms separated only by
one bond, 3) pairs of atoms separated by up to two bonds.
The geometry of the neural network: 1) 50 hidden neurons in one layer, 2) 30 hidden
neurons in one layer, 3) two hidden layers of 20 and 10 neurons.
The transfer function – either the logistic function f(x)=(1+e-x)-1 or hyperbolic tangent
(tanh).

Table 2. The results of some of the test runs using a MATLAB implementation of the neural
network algorithm. The mean error of the test set is shown as a function of the neural network
configuration. The data are sorted by the mean error in ascending order, with some entries being
omitted for clarity.

Number of neurons Transfer Cross- Mean error, ppm
#
in hidden layers function increments (test data set)
1 20-10 Logistic Two bonds 3.06
2 30 Logistic Two bonds 3.07
3 50 Logistic Two bonds 3.12
4 20-10 Tanh Two bonds 3.15
5 30 Logistic One bond 3.23
6 20-10 Logistic One bond 3.23

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12 20-10 Logistic None 3.68
18 50 Tanh None 4.58

As shown in Table 2 the top configurations 1-4 took into account the maximum available
number of cross-increments. The best result without cross-increments is shown for comparison
and is only ranked 12th out of the 18 runs. At the same time it is clear that arrangement of the
neurons into layers plays a somewhat secondary role since the difference between the first two
networks with the same total number of neurons but with different geometries is negligible.
These results define a reference point for further studies. While subsequently scaling up
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our calculations to approximately 2,000,000 C chemical shifts we mainly utilized networks
with 1-3 hidden layers and with a logistic transfer function. We have also tried to provide as
many cross-increments as possible to our networks with only time and memory restrictions
limiting our analyses. .

3.2. Choosing the optimal number of sub-databases

While dealing with a large database is likely to be of value for analysis purposes we chose to
split it into a number of smaller subsets. The most popular strategy for splitting a large database
is based on the nature of the central atom type. All carbons can be classified according to
hybridization, the number of attached protons or both. Also, some groups are so specific and
abundant, for example a carbonyl group, that they might deserve a separate class. We have
utilized four different strategies:
The database was used as a whole.
The carbon atoms were classified only according to hybridization: three aliphatic classes
(sp3, sp2, sp) and one for all carbons within aromatic rings to give a total of four different
classes.
The hybridization and the number of attached protons were both taken into account. This
led to 10 classifications: 4 sp3 (C, CH, CH2, CH3), 3 sp2 (C, CH, CH2), sp and 2 aromatic
(C, CH).
The most detailed scheme includes states of hybridization, the number of protons attached to
the carbon atom and the presence or absence of a heteroatom within one bond of a central atom.
The fifteen resulting classes include: aliphatic sp3 (7 classes: C, C(het), CH, CH(het), CH2,
CH2(het), CH3), aliphatic sp2 (4 classes: C, CH, CH2, CO), aliphatic sp, and three aromatic
classes: C, C(het), CH. The symbol (het) denotes a heteroatom, oxygen or nitrogen in this case,
nearby. Some classes were merged into one sub-class, for example aliphatic sp3 CH3 and

8

CH3(het)) because a smaller class was too small or not diverse enough to reliably teach a
network, especially one with a higher number of neurons.

Figure 3. The dependence of the mean error derived from the test set for a number of sub-
databases relative to the size of the training set. The results were obtained with neural networks
containing 30 neurons in one hidden layer. The splitting schemes leading to one, four, ten and
fifteen different classes are described in the text.

It appears that more detailed classifications bring more flexibility. For example, one can
introduce specific description schemes for certain atomic types – chemical shifts of the methyl
group might highly depend on stereochemistry and it is possible to introduce stereo descriptors
specifically for this atomic type. Smaller databases are also easier to handle in terms of computer
memory requirements. However, restricting the training set to very similar compounds prevents
a neural network from making generalizations and decreases the quality of the results.
As seen in Figure 3 the differences between classifications are more apparent with a
smaller number of training pools. These results suggest that for a large enough database, about
50-100 thousand compounds, the results are only slightly dependent on the classification
scheme. For the largest database utilized here, over 207,000 compounds, the difference between
the best classification, 4 centers giving an error of 1.65 ppm, and the worst, 1 center giving an
error of 1.75 ppm, was only 0.10 ppm. This difference is not practically important for carbon
NMR shifts. We decided to utilize the scheme with 15 classes for commercial purposes due to
the flexibility discussed earlier.

9

3.3. Choosing the optimal number of cross-increments
Using cross-increments is one of the few ways to boost the performance of a regression-based
scheme. Although the approach is less popular with neural networks it was illustrated above that
the latter can also benefit from explicitly specified cross-increments. At the same time, providing
too many increments and cross-increments leads to an unnecessarily detailed description of a
structure and, consequently, to overtraining. Using a small part of the whole database, 16,000
compounds with 212,000 chemical shifts, we systematically changed a few parameters to
elucidate an optimal scheme. Since it is possible to vary the number of atomic spheres under
consideration we tried values from 3 to 7. Due to limited computational resources it is
impossible to generate all possible cross-increments between atoms up to the 6-7th spheres. In
this study cross-increments were created for atoms located no further than the 3rd sphere. We
varied the maximum number of bonds between the atoms in the cross-increments from 0 (no
cross-increments) to 4.
For these tests our main training database was split into 10 sub-databases (see above) and
a PLS routine was used.

Figure 4. The mean error of a set as a function of the maximum number of bonds between the
atoms in the cross-increments and the number of spheres used to describe an atom’s
neighborhood.

Figure 4 summarizes our findings. The best result was obtained from a combination of 6
spheres and 3 bonds to provide a mean error of 2.27 ppm. There is practically no difference
10

between the two largest sets of increments with up to 3 or 4 bonds between the atoms and this
suggests that further refinement might not be necessary and can lead to over-fitting. The same
applies to the total number of spheres – six are enough. This makes perfect chemical sense since
there are few electrostatic interactions or conjugation, inductive or mesomeric effects in aromatic
systems that span across more than 5-6 covalent bonds.

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3.4. Comparison of C chemical shift prediction by neural networks and Partial Least
Squares
After optimization of a few key features such as the structure description algorithm and the NN
parameters we have compared the PLS and NN methods. For the neural networks we varied the
size of the network varying the number of hidden layers, the quantity of neurons and the number
of cross-increments provided. All other parameters such as the transfer function, the number of
sub-databases, etc were taken as optimized during the previous steps. An independent test set of
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118,000 individual C chemical shifts was used for comparison. Calculations were performed
with 15 individual sub-databases as described above. All cross-increments were constructed
from atoms separated by not more than one covalent bond and located within 1-3 spheres from
the central atom.

Figure 5. The mean 13C chemical shift error as a function of the neural network geometry and the
maximum number of bonds separating atoms in the cross-increments. See text for details.

11

As shown in Figure 5 the performance of neural networks gradually increases upon
adding more hidden neurons and cross-increments. Not surprisingly the best result, providing a
mean error of 1.77 ppm, was achieved with the maximum number of cross increments and the
largest neural network. It should be noted that for the various network configurations compared
that the total number of parameters for each network is not the same and all networks with more
than one layer have more parameters. That said, the only extra parameter, and therefore
additional degree of freedom, is the number of neurons in the additional hidden layers. This
additional single extra parameter was optimized by comparing the two configurations of 100-25-
5 and 75-40-15, both with the same total number of neurons. In general it is concluded that the
total number of neurons matters but not their arrangement.
The configuration was tuned by adding more cross-increments up to the 3rd sphere with
no more than two covalent bonds between the atoms and using stereo information in the atomic
descriptors (see above). With three layers of 100, 25 and 5 hidden neurons the network produced
a mean error of 1.59 ppm with a largest error value of 85 ppm and 0.6% of the chemical shifts
predicted with an error of more than 10 ppm (Table 3).
A similar approach was used to evaluate the performance of the PLS algorithm. The
optimal number of latent variables was determined using an independent test dataset.
Calculations were performed on this control dataset using up to 200 latent variables and the
number providing the lowest average deviation was used for further analysis. The optimal
number of latent variables is different for different types of carbon environments and varies
between 50 -150. The same database split of 15 sub-databases was used. For the cross-
increments we used a configuration of 6 spheres and cross-increments were taken from 3 first
spheres with atoms separated by not more than 3 covalent bonds. This setup was shown to be the
most effective in our previous studies (see above). The results obtained were of a similar quality.
The mean 13C chemical shift error is slightly higher (1.71 ppm) but other benchmark parameters
were close to those obtained for the neural network (Table 3). The number of severe outliers is
somewhat lower with only 0.7% of the centers producing errors of greater than 10 ppm. The
maximum error was 56 ppm.
13
One may request an explanation for why the neural network based C chemical shift
calculations give the best accuracy and yet have the largest maximum error. This is due to the
fact that the ability to predict values for the most representative compounds in a given class
while also providing optimal performance for the most exotic compounds is a significant
challenge. Predictions can be optimized either for "typical" or "atypical" members of a dataset
and as a result we observe good prediction performance for “average structures” but poor
performance for the more exotic compounds.

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Values for the mean error determined using NN and presented in Figure 6 as a function of
the number of substituents (i.e. CH2 vs CH for the same hybridization state) suggest that
generally the errors are higher for more highly substituted atoms. This would appear reasonable
because of the cross-influence between the different substituents enhances the non-linear effects.

Table 3. The best results for the prediction of both 13C and 1H chemical shifts by HOSE6 codes,
PLS and NN algorithms. The specific set of parameters for each method is described in the text.
13
Outliers are defined as those shifts predicted with an error of more than 10 ppm for C
1
predictions and more than 1.0 ppm for H predictions.
Type of Prediction Mean error, Standard Maximum
spectrum method ppm deviation, error, ppm % of outliers
ppm
13
C HOSE 1.81 3.05 57.99 2.8%
PLS 1.71 2.61 51.57 0.7%
NN 1.59 2.45 85.82 0.6%
1
H HOSE 0.19 0.30 3.94 1.3%
PLS 0.18 0.26 2.72 0.7%
NN 0.18 0.26 3.71 0.8%

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Figure 6. The dependence of the mean error (ppm) on the number of substituents and the
hybridization of the central atom. The data shown are for 13C chemical shift predictions with the
most efficient neural network configurations (see text for details).

The comparison shows that both methods can provide results of similar quality after
being properly optimized. A neural network, in general, seems to perform better with atoms
whose chemical shifts are closer to an average value for the corresponding atomic type. Linear
regression can more easily handle exotic fragments (such as in the compound CI4 with a
chemical shift of -292.5 ppm), since even the most unusual combination of substituents can
easily be assigned with an appropriate incremental value leading to a more accurate prediction.
At the same time, values of weights for most of the neurons in a network are affected by all of
the structures present during the training process and the impact of unusual structures is masked
by the majority of the more regular structures. These differences are highlighted by the lower
value of the mean error for the neural network. Simultaneously, the maximum error being more
sensitive to a small number of badly predicted structures is better for the incremental scheme.
Both of these methods perform better than our implementation of the database-based
HOSE code approach9 (Table 3). For a given atom the algorithm31 retrieves few structures from
a database which have chemically similar nuclei. The predicted value is the weighted average of
chemical shifts contained within the database structures. The approach fails with structures
which are underrepresented in the database and this raises the standard deviation and the
maximum error.

3.5. Prediction of 1H chemical shifts
13
An attempt was made to apply the experiences from the C-related analyses to the
prediction of proton chemical shifts. Over 1 million chemical shifts were used as a training set
and the same test dataset was that used for the 13C analysis, a total of 114,494 1H chemical shifts.
The whole training database was split into 9 sub-datasets, namely the aliphatic sp3 (5
classes: CH, CH(het), CH2, CH2(het), CH3), aliphatic sp2, aromatic sp2, aliphatic sp and protons
attached to heteroatoms. The notation (het) denotes a group attached to a hetereoatom. The
neighborhood of an atom was described in exactly the same manner as described earlier for the
13
C studies. All additional flags specified in the section above (stereo configuration, Z/E
conjugated system, etc) were included.
The neural network used for the calculation had 100, 25 and 5 hidden neurons arranged in
three layers. The six nearest spheres were used; cross-increments were constructed from atoms in
the first 3 layers separated by not more than one covalent bond. PLS regression was performed

14

within the same six-sphere vicinity though with more cross-increments: within the three nearest
spheres with atoms separated by three covalent bonds or less.
The best results for the 1H chemical shifts predictions are presented in Table 3. The
neural networks and PLS approaches performed in a remarkably similar manner. The quality of
results is much less dependent on the number of cross-increments – most of the NN and PLS
configurations result in a mean error of approximately 0.2 ppm. In order to reduce the error to
that experienced in experimental determinations further optimization such as the detailed
description of the 3D geometry might be necessary. Table 4 summarizes the separate steps
carried out in this work.

Table 4. The general workflow of the analysis. The size of the databases is represented by the
number of chemical shifts as well as the number of compounds.
Step Nucleus Algorithm Size of the Size of the
database, database,
chemical shifts compounds
Training Testing Training Testing
13
Optimization of neural C NN 422,000 12,660 29 000 3000
network parameters
13
Optimization of number of C PLS 2,000,000 118,000 207,000 11,000
sub-databases
13
Optimization of number of C PLS 212,000 118,000 16,000 11,000
structure descriptors
13
Comparison of least- C PLS, NN 2,000,000 118,000 207,000 11,000
1
square regression vs H PLS, NN 1,150,000 116,000 189,000 14,000
neural networks

3.6. Speed of chemical shift prediction.
Modern CASE expert systems are based on the utilization of 2D NMR data and this
allows the identification of isolated materials such as natural products or synthesized organic
molecules. These systems are capable of elucidating large molecules containing 100 or more
skeletal atoms1. Since the initial structural information extracted from 2D NMR data is fuzzy by
nature1 the number of structures that are consistent with the spectral data can usually be rather
large (up to tens of thousands3). As a result the selection of the most probable structure from a

15

large output file containing many molecules requires an approach whereby the expert systems
can utilize both accurate and fast approaches for NMR chemical shift prediction.
Both the 13C and 1H chemical shift calculations compared in this study were implemented
into a software expert system known as Structure Elucidator2,3. The prediction speed was
estimated by the spectral prediction of candidate structures generated by the program. The
13
average speed of the C chemical shift prediction by PLS is about 9000 shifts per second on a
2.8 GHz PC computer while the neural network based algorithm was approximately 2.5-3 times
slower. The combination of this high speed of prediction with an appropriate accuracy for
prediction with an average deviation of 1.71 ppm makes the PLS approach a powerful tool for
computer-aided structure elucidation. A study regarding the impact of these new NMR spectrum
prediction tools in regards to the possibilities of improving CASE systems are in progress and
the results will be reported in a future publication.

4. Conclusions
The results of both 13C and 1H NMR chemical shift prediction using neural networks and
partial least squares algorithms have been systematically compared. Two of the largest databases
currently available were utilized in this work: over 2 million 13C shifts and 1 million 1H shifts.
In most cases these two algorithms performed remarkably similarly. It is concluded that neural
networks do not automatically lead to better results and that a simpler least squares approaches
might still be the method of choice. It was determined that the way a chemical structure was
converted into a numerical representation provided the most influence regarding the results
obtained. Both methods required rather detailed descriptions of the structure and included atoms
up to 6 covalent bonds apart. It has been shown that neural networks still require cross-
increments and are unable to recognize even the most common functional groups such as a
carbonyl group from a description based solely on the individual atoms.
The quality of results obtained using our current setup is probably limited to average
errors of 1.5 ppm for carbon and 0.2 ppm for protons. Our belief is that any further improvement
in the precision of NMR prediction will be due to the perfection of the structure description
algorithms and, more importantly, the quality of training databases rather than the method of
regression used to extract the prediction algorithms. An important result from this study is that
the incremental approach now implemented into the ACD/CNMR Predictor provides an average
speed for 13C chemical shift prediction of over 9000 shifts per second with a mean chemical shift
deviation of 1.7 ppm. This is a significant improvement in both speed and accuracy over
previously available algorithms.

16

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