Molecular and isotopic evidence for the processing of starchy plants in Early Neolithic pottery from China.

Organic residue analysis of ancient ceramic vessels enables the investigation of natural resources that were used in daily cooking practices in different part of the world. Despite many methodological advances, the utilization of plants in pottery has been difficult to demonstrate chemically, hindering the study of their role in ancient society, a topic that is especially important to understanding early agricultural practices at the start of the Neolithic period. Here, we present the first lipid residue study on the Chinese Neolithic pottery dated to 5.

Corneal ablation with new 193 nm solid-state laser: preliminary experiments.

Purpose: To assess the ability of a newly developed 193 nm solid-state laser to ablate the cornea.

Setting: Osaka University, Osaka, Japan.

Methods: A prototype laser engine was developed by combining a 1547 nm laser diode, fiber amplifiers, and 5 stages of a frequency-conversion system using CsLiB6O10 crystals as the last stage.

Processing of membrane protein crystal using ultraviolet laser irradiation.

We demonstrated the processing of a membrane protein crystal, using a pulsed UV laser soft ablation (PULSA) technique. Irradiation with deep-UV laser pulses at a wavelength of 193 nm successfully processed not only single crystals of the membrane transporter protein AcrB but also nylon loops and cryoprotectants at a cryogenic temperature. Nonprocessed parts of the crystals exhibited no signs of crack or denaturation after the laser exposure.