Kinetic analysis of in vitro splicing is a valuable technique for understanding splicing regulation. It allows the determination of specific contributions from functional elements for the efficient removal of introns. This chapter will describe the rationale and approach employed to use kinetic analysis to evaluate an in vitro splicing reaction using radiolabeled pre-mRNA incubated in splicing-competent HeLa nuclear extract (NE). © 2014 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC.

The in vitro splicing assay is a valuable technique that can be used to study the mechanism and machinery involved in the splicing process. The ability to investigate various aspects of splicing and alternative splicing appears to be endless due to the flexibility of this assay. Here, we describe the tools and techniques necessary to carry out an in vitro splicing assay. Through the use of radiolabeled pre-mRNA and crude nuclear extract, spliced mRNAs can be purified and visualized by autoradiography for downstream analysis. © 2014 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC.

The odd-odd fp-shell nucleus Sc52 was investigated using in-beam γ-ray spectroscopy following secondary fragmentation of a V55 and Cr57 cocktail beam. Aside from the known γ-ray transition at 674(5) keV, a new decay at Eγ=212(3) keV was observed. It is attributed to the depopulation of a low-lying excited level. This new state is discussed in the framework of shell-model calculations with the GXPF1, GXPF1A, and KB3G effective interactions. These calculations are found to be fairly robust for the low-lying level scheme of Sc52 irrespective of the choice of the effective interaction. In addition, the frequency of spin values predicted by the shell model is successfully modeled by a spin distribution formulated in a statistical approach with an empirical, energy-independent spin-cutoff parameter. © 2006 The American Physical Society.

The two-proton knockout reaction Be9(Ti54,Ca52+γ) has been studied at 72 MeV/nucleon. Besides the strong feeding of the Ca52 ground state, the only other sizeable cross section proceeds to a 3- level at 3.9 MeV. There is no measurable direct yield to the first excited 2+ state at 2.6 MeV. The results illustrate the potential of such direct reactions for exploring cross-shell proton excitations in neutron-rich nuclei and confirms the doubly-magic nature of Ca52. © 2006 The American Physical Society.