A Far-Red Emitting Fluorescent Chemogenetic Reporter for In Vivo Molecular Imaging

Far-red emitting fluorescent labels are highly desirable for spectral multiplexing and deep tissue imaging. Here, we describe the generation of frFAST (far-red Fluorescence Activating and absorption Shifting Tag), a 14-kDa monomeric protein that forms a bright far-red fluorescent assembly with (4-hydroxy-3-methoxy-phenyl)allylidene rhodanine (HPAR-3OM). As HPAR-3OM is essentially non-fluorescent in solution and in cells, frFAST can be imaged with high contrast in presence of free HPAR-3OM, which allowed the rapid and efficient imaging of frFAST fusions in live cells, zebrafish embryo/larvae, and chicken embryos. Beyond enabling the genetic encoding of far-red fluorescence, frFAST allowed the design of a far-red chemogenetic reporter of protein–protein interactions, demonstrating its great potential for the design of innovative far-red emitting biosensors.     

Collective Tunnelling of Strongly Interacting Cold Atoms in a Double-Well Potential

It is known that under resonance conditions, a group of strongly interacting bosonic atoms, trapped in a double-well potential, mimics a single particle, performing Rabi oscillations between the wells. By implication, all atoms need to tunnel at roughly the same time, even though the Bose–Hubbard Hamiltonian accounts only for one-atom-at-a-time transfers. The mechanism of this collective behavior is analyzed, the Rabi frequencies in the process are evaluated, and the limitation of this simple picture is discussed. In particular, it is shown that the small rapid oscillations superimposed on the slow Rabi cycle result from splitting the transferred cluster at the sudden onset of tunnelling, and disappear if tunnelling is turned on gradually.     

An improved On-Surface Radiation Condition for acoustic scattering problems in the high-frequency spectrum

This Note addresses the derivation of an improved On-Surface Radiation Condition for the numerical solution of the exterior Helmholtz equation at high-frequencies. This condition is built as an approximation of the Neumann-to-Dirichlet map by using a local regularization of its principal classical symbol in the gliding zone for modelling the creeping waves. The numerical simulation of this pseudodifferential operator is efficiently realized with a linear cost according to the dimension of the boundary element approximation space using suitable complex Padé approximants. A numerical example is provided. To cite this article: X. Antoine et al., C. R. Acad. Sci. Paris, Ser. I 340 (2005).     

Study of the gas-phase parameters affecting the silicon-oxide film deposition induced by an ArF laser

A study of the gas-phase parameters involved in ArF laser induced chemical vapour deposition of silicon-oxide thin films is presented. A complete set of experiments has been performed showing the influence of the concentration of the precursor gases, N₂O and SiH₄, and their influence on total and partial pressures on film growth and properties. In this paper we demonstrate the ability of this LCVD method to deposit silicon oxide films of different compositions and densities by appropriate control of gas composition and total pressure. Moreover, a material specific calibration plot comprising data obtained using different preparation techniques is presented, allowing determination of the stoichiometry of SiO _x films by using FTIR spectroscopy independently of the deposition method. For the range of processing conditions examined, the experimental results suggest that chemical processes governing deposition take place mainly in the gas phase.     

On the structure of complete simply connected embedded minimal surfaces

The helicoid and the plane are the only known complete simply connected minimal surfaces without self-intersections. In this paper we make an analytic study of this class of surfaces by first deforming them continuously into surfaces with self-intersections. Next, we study the (backward) time evolution of the set of self-intersections and see what geometric conditions must prevail in order for the self-intersections to rush off to infinity in finite time. As a result of this program it is shown that any surface of the type considered above has to satisfy at least one of five geometric possibilities. The first two of these alternatives are pathological, the third one is satisfied by the plane, and the next two are satisfied by the helicoid.     

Common Tangents to Spheres in ℝ3

We prove that four spheres in ℝ³ have infinitely many real common tangents if and only if they have aligned centers and at least one real common tangent.     

Du discret au continu pour des modèles de réseaux aléatoires d'atomes

We study in this Note the continuum (macroscopic) limit for some atomistic models for crystals. The purpose is to derive densities of mechanical energies from microscopic models. In contrast to the setting of a previous study, where the microscopic structure was assumed to be periodic, it is modelled here by a stochastic lattice, which enjoys some stationarity and ergodicity properties, following notions previously introduced elsewhere. To cite this article: X. Blanc et al., C. R. Acad. Sci. Paris, Ser. I 342 (2006).     

Scattering from infinite rough tubular surfaces

We study the Helmholtz equation in the exterior of an infinite perturbed cylinder with a Dirichlet boundary condition. Existence and uniqueness of solutions are established using the variational technique introduced (SIAM J. Math. Anal. 2005; 37 (2):598–618). We also provide stability estimates with explicit dependence of the constants in terms of the frequency and the perturbed cylinder thickness. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Toward phenanthridin-2-ylidene: electrophilicity versus acidity in planar-constrained C-aryl iminium salts

A phenanthridinium salt was prepared in four steps, including an intramolecular CH-arylation and a hydride abstraction reaction. Treatment with sterically demanding bases does not lead to the corresponding carbene, but rather to addition products: the planar-constrained geometry significantly enhances the electrophilicity over the acidity of C-aryl iminium salts.