Characterization of three-color CARS in a two-pulse broadband CARS spectrum

We demonstrate that a broadband coherent anti-Stokes Raman scattering (CARS) spectrum generated with a typical two-pulse scheme contains two distinct, significant signals: '2-color' CARS, where the pump and probe are provided by a narrowband pulse and the continuum pulse constitutes the Stokes light, and '3-color' CARS, where the pump and Stokes are provided by two different frequency components in the continuum pulse and the narrowband pulse serves as the probe. The CARS spectra from the two different mechanisms show distinct characteristics in Raman shift range, laser power dependence, and chirping dependence. We discuss the potential for a 3-color CARS signal to cover the fingerprint region with reduced photodamage of live cells. Official contribution of the National Institute of Standards and Technology; not subject to copyright in the United States.     

Simple approach to one-laser, broadband coherent anti-Stokes Raman scattering microscopy

Coherent anti-Stokes Raman scattering (CARS) microscopy is emerging as a powerful method for imaging materials and biological systems, partly because of its noninvasiveness and selective chemical sensitivity. However, its full potential for species-selective imaging is limited by a restricted spectral bandwidth. Recent increases in bandwidth are promising but still are not sufficient for the level of robust component discrimination that would be needed in a chemically complex milieu found, for example, in intracellular and extracellular environments. We demonstrate a truly broadband CARS imaging instrument that we use to acquire hyperspectral images with vibrational spectra over a bandwidth of 2500 cm(-1) with a resolution of 13 cm(-1).     

Protein and solvent dynamics: how strongly are they coupled?

Analysis of Raman and neutron scattering spectra of lysozyme demonstrates that the protein dynamics follow the dynamics of the solvents glycerol and trehalose over the entire temperature range measured 100-350 K. The protein's fast conformational fluctuations and low-frequency vibrations and their temperature variations are very sensitive to behavior of the solvents. Our results give insight into previous counterintuitive observations that protein relaxation is stronger in solid trehalose than in liquid glycerol. They also provide insight into the effectiveness of glycerol as a biological cryopreservant.     

A Surrogate for Debye-Waller Factors from Dynamic Stokes Shifts

We show that the short-time behavior of time-resolved fluorescence Stokes shifts (TRSS) are similar to that of the intermediate scattering function obtained from neutron scattering at q near the peak in the static structure factor for glycerol. This allows us to extract a Debye-Waller (DW) factor analog from TRSS data at times as short as 1 ps in a relatively simple way. Using the time-domain relaxation data obtained by this method we show that DW factors evaluated at times ≥ 40 ps can be directly influenced by α relaxation and thus should be used with caution when evaluating relationships between fast and slow dynamics in glassforming systems.     

C-terminal processing of yeast Spt7 occurs in the absence of functional SAGA complex

Background  

Spt7 is an integral component of the multi-subunit SAGA complex that is required for the expression of ~10% of yeast genes. Two forms of Spt7 have been identified, the second of which is truncated at its C-terminus and found in the SAGA-like (SLIK) complex.     

Temperature dependence of molecular motions in bulk polystyrene

Time-resolved optical spectroscopy is used to investigate the reorientation of three rigid probes and one labeled chain in bulk polystyrene. Orientational correlation times for these probes and labels are found to be in the range of 10^?8–10^?10 s at temperatures of 180–300°C. Consistent with previous studies, the attachment of a chromophore into the chain backbone slows its dynamics by about an order of magnitude. The temperature dependences of the correlation times are similar to the temperature dependence of the viscosity. When combined with probe reorientation times near and below T_g, these results indicate that probe reorientation tracks the temperature dependence of the viscosity quite well over twelve decades in time. In contrast, literature results for the translational diffusion of similarly sized probes indicates a substantially weaker temperature dependence near T_g. Thus it appears that a fundamental change in the mechanism of probe motion occurs near T_g. © 1994 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Networks with small stretch number

In a previous work, the authors introduced the class of graphs with bounded induced distance of order k (BID(k) for short), to model non-reliable interconnection networks. A network modeled as a graph in BID(k) can be characterized as follows: if some nodes have failed, as long as two nodes remain connected, the distance between these nodes in the faulty graph is at most k times the distance in the non-faulty graph. The smallest k such that GBID(k) is called stretch number of G. We show an odd characteristic of the stretch numbers: every rational number greater or equal 2 is a stretch number, but only discrete values are admissible for smaller stretch numbers. Moreover, we give a new characterization of classes BID(2−1/i), i1, based on forbidden induced subgraphs. By using this characterization, we provide a polynomial time recognition algorithm for graphs belonging to these classes, while the general recognition problem is Co-NP-complete.     

Dynamic Multi-level Overlay Graphs for Shortest Paths

Multi-level overlay graphs represent a speed-up technique for shortest paths computation which is based on a hierarchical decomposition of a weighted directed graph G. They have been shown to be experimentally efficient, especially when applied to timetable information. However, no theoretical result on the cost of constructing, maintaining and querying multi-level overlay graphs in a dynamic environment is known. In this paper, we show theoretical properties of multi-level overlay graphs that lead us to the definition of a new data structure for the computation and the maintenance of an overlay graph of G while weight decrease or weight increase operations are performed on G. Our solution is theoretically faster than the recomputation from scratch and allows queries that can be performed more efficiently than running Dijkstra’s shortest paths algorithm on G. This work was partially supported by the Future and Emerging Technologies Unit of EC (IST priority – 6th FP), under contract no. FP6-021235-2 (project ARRIVAL).