Feasibility experiments on time-resolved fluorosensing applied to oil slicks

The introduction of time resolved observations can provide a very penetrating tool in the practice of laser fluorosensing. The investigations have demonstrated a relevance of multispectral, time resolved analysis for oil fingerprinting. By comparative studies on a variety of crude oils and their most significant fractions, it was found that the process of time decay in a composite oil is characterized by a few steps, which are associated with specific components in the medium light range. The average decay times of these pure fractions are markedly differentiated as to absolute values and spectral spread; as a consequence, the corresponding parameters in the resultant crude are quite sensitive to the particular mixture of these components. Measurements of the time response give then a finer discrimination between oil classes, depending on the relative content of certain fractions. Experiments were pursued with an improved fluorosensor facility, in order to test the application of time resolved fluorosensing to remote samples on water

Meeting report: Sixth International Symposium on Resonance Ionization Spectroscopy and its Applications

In this paper, an attempt will be made to give an overview of the scientific contents of the meeting. Since it would be impossible to cover exhaustively all the topics presented, we have tried to emphasize some applications, with special emphasis to the analytical aspects of the presentation. The Sixth International Symposium on Resonance Ionization Spectroscopy and its Applications (RIS-92) was held in Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA, from May 24 to 29, 1992

Functional material features of Bombyx mori silk light versus heavy chain proteins

Bombyx mori (BM) silk fibroin is composed of two different subunits; heavy chain and light chain fibroin linked by a covalent disulphide bond. Current methods of separating the two silk fractions is complicated and produces inadequate quantities of the isolated components for the study of the individual light and heavy chain silks with respect to new materials. We report a simple method of separating silk fractions using formic acid. The formic acid treatment partially releases predominately the light chain fragment (soluble fraction) and then the soluble fraction and insoluble fractions can be converted into new materials. The regenerated original (total) silk fibroin and the separated fractions (soluble vs. insoluble) had different molecular weights and showed distinctive pH stabilities against aggregation/precipitation based on particle charging. All silk fractions could be electrospun to give fibre mats with viscosity of the regenerated fractions being the controlling factor for successful electrospinning. The silk fractions could be mixed to give blends with different proportions of the two fractions to modify the diameter and uniformity of the electrospun fibres formed. The soluble fraction containing the light chain was able to modify the viscosity by thinning the insoluble fraction containing heavy chain fragments, perhaps analogous to its role in natural fibre formation where the light chain provides increased mobility and the heavy chain producing shear thickening effects. The simplicity of this new separation method should enable access to these different silk protein fractions and accelerate the identification of methods, modifications and potential applications of these materials in biomedical and industrial applications

Long-Distance Signals Are Required for Morphogenesis of the Regenerating Xenopus Tadpole Tail, as Shown by Femtosecond-Laser Ablation

tadpoles has recently emerged as an important model for these studies; we explored the role of the spinal cord during tadpole tail regeneration.Using ultrafast lasers to ablate cells, and Geometric Morphometrics to quantitatively analyze regenerate morphology, we explored the influence of different cell populations. For at least twenty-four hours after amputation (hpa), laser-induced damage to the dorsal midline affected the morphology of the regenerated tail; damage induced 48 hpa or later did not. Targeting different positions along the anterior-posterior (AP) axis caused different shape changes in the regenerate. Interestingly, damaging two positions affected regenerate morphology in a qualitatively different way than did damaging either position alone. Quantitative comparison of regenerate shapes provided strong evidence against a gradient and for the existence of position-specific morphogenetic information along the entire AP axis.We infer that there is a conduit of morphology-influencing information that requires a continuous dorsal midline, particularly an undamaged spinal cord. Contrary to expectation, this information is not in a gradient and it is not localized to the regeneration bud. We present a model of morphogenetic information flow from tissue undamaged by amputation and conclude that studies of information coming from far outside the amputation plane and regeneration bud will be critical for understanding regeneration and for translating fundamental understanding into biomedical approaches

Rough Fibrils Provide a Toughening Mechanism in Biological Fibers

Spider silk is a fascinating natural composite material. Its combination of strength and toughness is unrivalled in nature, and as a result, it has gained considerable interest from the medical, physics, and materials communities. Most of this attention has focused on the one to tens of nanometer scale: predominantly the primary (peptide sequences) and secondary (β sheets, helices, and amorphous domains) structure, with some insights into tertiary structure (the arrangement of these secondary structures) to describe the origins of the mechanical and biological performance. Starting with spider silk, and relating our findings to collagen fibrils, we describe toughening mechanisms at the hundreds of nanometer scale, namely, the fibril morphology and its consequences for mechanical behavior and the dissipation of energy. Under normal conditions, this morphology creates a nonslip fibril kinematics, restricting shearing between fibrils, yet allowing controlled local slipping under high shear stress, dissipating energy without bulk fracturing. This mechanism provides a relatively simple target for biomimicry and, thus, can potentially be used to increase fracture resistance in synthetic materials

From Cleanroom to Desktop: Emerging Micro-Nanofabrication Technology for Biomedical Applications

This review is motivated by the growing demand for low-cost, easy-to-use, compact-size yet powerful micro-nanofabrication technology to address emerging challenges of fundamental biology and translational medicine in regular laboratory settings. Recent advancements in the field benefit considerably from rapidly expanding material selections, ranging from inorganics to organics and from nanoparticles to self-assembled molecules. Meanwhile a great number of novel methodologies, employing off-the-shelf consumer electronics, intriguing interfacial phenomena, bottom-up self-assembly principles, etc., have been implemented to transit micro-nanofabrication from a cleanroom environment to a desktop setup. Furthermore, the latest application of micro-nanofabrication to emerging biomedical research will be presented in detail, which includes point-of-care diagnostics, on-chip cell culture as well as bio-manipulation. While significant progresses have been made in the rapidly growing field, both apparent and unrevealed roadblocks will need to be addressed in the future. We conclude this review by offering our perspectives on the current technical challenges and future research opportunities

An expression for the atomic fluorescence and thermal-emission intensity under conditions of near saturation and arbitrary self-absorption

An expression for the effect of self-absorption on the fluorescence and thermal emission intensities is derived by taking into account stimulated emission. A simple, idealized case is considered, consisting of a two level atomic system, in a flame, homogeneous with respect to temperature and composition, and uniformly illuminated by an external quasi-continuum radiation source