Porous silicon that strongly emits in the visible was analyzed using Raman scattering. The spectrum peaks near 508 cm ~ ', has a width of-40 cm I~ ', and is very asymmetric. Using a model of phonon confinement, this suggests that the local structure of porous silicon is more like a sphere than a rod and has a characteristic diameter of 2.5-3.0 nm. Polarization Raman measurements suggest that the structure does not consist of a series of parallel columns.

When the stop codons TGA, TAA, and TAG are found in the second and third reading frames of a protein-encoding gene, they are considered premature stop codons (PSC). Deinococcus radiodurans disproportionately favored TGA more than the other two triplets as a PSC. The TGA triplet was also found more often in noncoding regions and as a stop codon, though the bias was less pronounced. We investigated this phenomenon in 72 bacterial species with widely differing chromosomal GC contents. Although TGA and TAG were compositionally similar, we found a great variation in use of TGA but a very limited range of use of TAG. The frequency of use of TGA in the gene sequences generally increased with the GC content of the chromosome, while the frequency of use of TAG, like that of TAA, was inversely proportional to the GC content of the chromosome. The patterns of use of TAA, TGA and TAG as real stop codons were less biased and less influenced by the GC content of the chromosome. Bacteria with higher chromosomal GC contents often contained fewer PSC trimers in their genes. Phylogenetically related bacteria often exhibited similar PSC ratios. In addition, metabolically versatile bacteria have significantly fewer PSC trimers in their genes. The bias toward TGA but against TAG as a PSC could not be explained either by the preferential usage of specific codons or by the GC contents of individual chromosomes. We proposed that the quantity and the quality of the PSC in the genome might be important in bacterial evolution.

Single-cell DNA sequencing is a powerful tool to evaluate the state of heterogeneity of heterogeneous tissues like cancer in a quantitative manner that bulk sequencing can never achieve. DOP-PCR (Degenerate Oligonucleotide-Primed Polymerase Chain Reaction), MDA (Multiple Displacement Amplification), MALBAC (Multiple Annealing and Looping-Based Amplification Cycles), LIANTI (Linear Amplification via Transposon Insertion) and TnBC (Transposon Barcoded) have been the primary choices to prepare single-cell libraries. TnBC library prep method is a simple and versatile methodology, to detect copy number variations or to obtain the absolute copy numbers of genes per cell.

Optical probing of laser-assisted chemical reactions on surfaces in real time can help explain and control these processes. Raman microprobe spectroscopy and micro laser induced fluorescence are the two optical probes employed here to investigate several examples of localized laser surface reactions. Raman microprobe analysis is used to monitor in real time the CuCl and CuCl2 products on the surface during local laser etching of copper films by Cl2 and the concomitant loss of the Cu2O passivation layer. It is also used to follow the production of Cu2O during the laser oxidation of Cu. Polarization Raman analysis is utilized to identify and analyze partially molten silicon during laser heating in vacuum and during the etching of silicon by chlorine. Laser induced fluorescence is used as a real time microprobe of desorbed products during local laser-assisted etching of Si and Al surfaces.

AbastracRaman spectra from a thick porous silicon film (∼100 μm) that strongly emits in the visible (∼ 6350 Å) at room temperature are obtained. An asymmetric peak with a Raman shift of ∼ 508 - 510 cm−1 and a width of ∼ 40 cm−1 is seen in every spectrum. This Raman feature resembles that of μc-Si, suggesting that the local structure of the porous silicon is a network of interconnected crystalline silicon islands with the island size in the nanometer range., and that the, shape of the islands is more sphere-like than rod-like. The characteristic dimension of the islands in these porous silicon films is estimated to be ∼ 2.5 - 3.0 nm on the basis of an empirical model calculation of phonon confinement.