Method for measuring the mean time of flight spent by photons inside a volume element of a highly diffusing medium

A method of measuring the mean time of flight, ?t(i)? , spent by photons inside a generic volume element of a highly diffusing medium is presented. The method comes from a general property of the radiative transfer equation and is based on relative measurements of cw attenuation that correspond to small variations of the absorption coefficient inside the volume element. By use of a liquid phantom and small gels with known optical properties it was possible to measure ?t(i)? with good accuracy, even when it was only a few picoseconds long. The results were in good agreement with Monte Carlo results.     

Testing optimality for quadratic 0-1 problems

Received June 4, 1996 / Revised version received November 19, 1997 Published online November 24, 1998     

Network models for vehicle and crew scheduling

Network models and methods have proven to be rather successful in many application fields. In this survey their use in the solution of Vehicle Scheduling and Crew Scheduling problems in Mass Transit settings is reviewed. An attempt is made to encompass in a unified framework some of the most relevant models on the subject to be found in the literature.     

Testing optimality for quadratic 0–1 unconstrained problems

This paper analyses a necessary and sufficient optimality condition for quadratic pseudo-Boolean unconstrained problems. It is proved that in general testing any necessary and sufficient optimality condition is a difficult task for anyNP-hard problem. An-optimality condition is derived together with an approximation scheme to test it.This work has been supported by the Progetto Finalizzato Trasporti 2, 93.01799.PF74.Professor Paolo Carraresi died unexpectedly on March 5, 1994. At the time of his death this paper had been completed. While undertaking the final revision, the other two authors were reminded just how much they were indebted to Professor Carraresi after many years of common work together.     

Expression of the small tyrosine phosphatase (Stp1) in Saccharomyces cerevisiae: a study on protein tyrosine phosphorylation

Small tyrosine phoshatase 1 (Stp1) is a Schizosaccharomyces pombe low-molecular-mass phosphotyrosine-phosphatase 50% identical to Saccharomyces cerevisiae Ltp1. In order to investigate the role of Stp1 in yeast, a mutant was generated having the characteristic of a dominant negative molecule. Changes in protein tyrosine phosphorylation in S. cerevisiae proteome in response to Stp1 or its dominant negative mutant expression were analyzed by high-resolution two-dimensional (2-D) electrophoresis. The most remarkable result is the modification by phosphorylation on tyrosine of several proteins involved in carbohydrate metabolism. Twelve proteins were identified on the basis of their positions in the anti-phosphotyrosine immunoblot of the 2-D electrophoresis. Ten of these present tyrosyl residues that are within the consensus sequence for protein kinase CK2 (casein kinase-2). These data open the possibility for the identification of Stp1 substrates in yeast and provide hints about the nature of tyrosine phosphorylating agents in yeast and in other organisms where bona fide tyrosine kinases are lacking.     

Time-resolved spectroscopy of the human forearm.

For spectroscopic purposes, the forearm is a conveniently large object to be investigated because consistent oxygenation and blood volume changes can be obtained. Human forearm spectral properties were investigated using picosecond near-IR laser spectroscopy. The behaviour of the temporal point spread function in resting conditions and during ischaemia, venous occlusion and exercise is reported. The effect of path length inaccuracy on muscle oxygen consumption, obtained by combining spectral data with the path length, is discussed.     

Anomalies in the polarized raman spectrum of crystal quartz

Summary By means of coherent Raman scattering we have measured in quartz the dispersion of the elements of the Raman tensor in the range (900÷1070) cm⁻¹. The results determine with good accuracy the relative contribution of the various modes to the second-order nonlinear susceptibility. For some elements of the Raman tensor the present results greatly improve the precision of data already known; for others the dispersion and the relative strengths have been measured for the first time. In particular, a strong, frequency-dependent, asymmetry of the Raman tensor has been evidentiated; this asymmetry is interpreted in terms of optical Raman activity.