Oxygen triggering reversible modulation of Vibrio fischeri strain Y1 bioluminescence in vivo

Yellow-emitting Vibrio fischeri Y1 modulates its bioluminescence (BL) depending on the dissolved O2 concentration. On supplying O2 to the cells under anaerobiosis, the cells begin to emit striking yellow BL peaking around 535 nm. The enhanced yellow emission reverts reversibly to the original level after O2 is consumed. Moreover, the reversible rise and fall of the yellow emission occurs repeatedly in accord with the repeating cycles of aeration on and off. This indicates that an increase in the cellular amount of yellow fluorescent protein (YFP) is not an immediate cause of the yellow emission enhancement. One suggested explanation is that the activity of YFP originating from its highly fluorescent property is altered by redox interaction with the respiratory components, including the soluble cytochrome c. Under the O2-limited conditions, the cellular YFP molecules, in part, seem to lose the fluorescent property possibly because of being reduced via redox interaction with some respiratory components in reduced form. On stimulating aerobic respiration with O2 supply, the reduced YFP seems to retrieve its fluorescent property via oxidation possibly with both O2, diffused across the cell membrane, and ferricytochrome c, generated during the respiratory turnover. The suggested redox interactions seem primarily to cause the reversible BL modulation.     

30-mJ, diode-pumped, chirped-pulse Yb:YLF regenerative amplifier

A diode-pumped chirped-pulse regenerative amplifier with a cooled Yb:YLF crystal has been developed. The output pulse energy is 30 mJ at 20-Hz repetition rate. A high effective extraction efficiency of 68% is obtained, which is attributed to reduced saturation fluence at low temperature and to a high effective pulse energy fluence during regenerative amplification. After pulse compression by use of a parallel grating pair, 18-mJ pulse energy and 795-fs pulse duration are obtained.     

Broad-spectrum frequency comb generation and carrier-envelope offset frequency measurement by second-harmonic generation of a mode-locked fiber laser

A frequency comb spanning more than one octave has been achieved by injecting the second-harmonic generation (780 nm) of a mode-locked fiber laser (1.56 microm) into a photonic crystal fiber. We propose and realize a novel interferometric scheme for observing the carrier-envelope offset frequency of the frequency comb. Frequency noise has been observed on the measured carrier-envelope offset frequency, which has been confirmed to be generated in the photonic crystal fiber by comparing the measured beat frequencies between cw lasers and frequency combs before and after the photonic crystal fiber. The mode-locked fiber laser is considered to be an important candidate for the light source used in realizing a compact optical frequency measurement system including applications in the telecommunication bands.     

Theoretical study of the optical manipulation of semiconductor nanoparticles under an excitonic resonance condition

We theoretically study the mechanical interaction between radiation and a semiconductor nanoparticle, based on a microscopic model of confined excitons. The exerted force is calculated by using the Maxwell stress tensor expressed in terms of the microscopic response field. The numerical demonstrations clarify the following: (1) The enhancement of the force by using electronic resonance is remarkable for a particle with a radius of less than 100 nm for semiconductor materials. (2) The spectral peak position of the exerted force is considerably sensitive to nanoscale-size changes which would be useful for highly accurate size-selective manipulation.     

Locating subsets of a normed space

Within the framework of Bishop's constructive mathematics, we give conditions under which a bounded convex subset of a uniformly smooth normed space over is located, extending results presented recently by F. Richman and H. Ishihara for subsets of a Hilbert space.

     

Atomic and molecular spectroscopy with a continuous-wave, doubly resonant, monolithic optical parametric oscillator

Doppler-broadened atomic and molecular spectra were observed with a one octave tunable, continuous-wave, doubly resonant, monolithic optical parametric oscillator (OPO) using 5% MgO-doped LiNbO₃ as a non-linear crystal with a birefringent phase-matching configuration. By tuning the frequency of a pump laser, longitudinal mode selection over 20 successive modes, corresponding to a 60 GHz span, was possible, owing to the simple structure of the monolithic OPO. Continuous frequency tuning was achieved using an external waveguide-type electrooptic phase modulator (EOM). By changing the modulation frequency of the EOM, frequency tuning of the optical sidebands over 12 GHz was possible, which is larger than the one free spectral range of the monolithic cavity of 3 GHz. We could observe the Cs-D₁ (894 nm), Cs-D₂ (852 nm), Rb-D₁ (795 nm), acetylene R9 (1520 nm) and P9 (1530 nm) transitions with the single monolithic OPO.     

Azo benzene derivatives

Pressure-volume isotherms for 4-(trans-4-butylcylohexyl)benzonitrile were measured by means of piston-cylinder method. This substance has a monotropic nematic phase at atmospheric pressure. But over a pressure, the nature of isotropic to nematic phase transition changed from monotropic to enantiotropic phase transition. It is the first observation in P-V-T experiments that the monotropic isotropic-nematic transition changes enantiotropic under pressure.