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Intravital multiphoton microscopy is a powerful tool to study kidney physiology in living animals. However, certain technical issues have curbed its usage to date, including limited depth of tissue penetration and high background emission of endogenous signals. Most previous studies have used the excitation range 700–1000 nm. Since newer longer wavelength excitation lasers may provide solutions to these problems we constructed a microscope coupled to a laser tunable up to 1300 nm and optimized for kidney imaging. This set-up offers substantial advantages for intravital studies, especially when coupled with newly available far-red probes. First, the background at longer wavelengths is markedly reduced, thus increasing the signal to background ratio. Second, the depth of tissue penetration is significantly increased, enabling detailed imaging of previously inaccessible structures, such as deeper glomeruli. Third, using a combination of two- and three-photon excitation, multiple different fluorescent probes can be imaged simultaneously in the same animal, with clear spectral separation. Application of these techniques helped visualize pathological aspects of tubular cell function in a well-established model of acute kidney injury (maleate toxicity). Thus, utilizing long wavelength excitation offers substantial advantages for intravital kidney imaging, which together enhance the capabilities of this powerful and increasingly used research technique.

The angular momenta of the fragments produced in several 100 and 180 MeV12C induced fission reactions have been investigated using?-ray multiplicity (M?) techniques. The averageM? increases with both the bombarding energy and the total mass of the system. The dependence ofM? on mass asymmetry is generally rather weak, except in regions near shell closures, where local minima are observed. The magnitudes ofM? tend to be larger than expected on the basis of rigid rotation, possibly due to the excitation of collective modes. A comparison is made with a statistical model.

Angular momentum alignment in the reaction154Sm+214 MeV32S has been investigated using discrete-line?-ray techniques. The anisotropies of stretchedE2 transitions from the target-like fragments reach approximately three at the largest energy losses, implying rather strong alignment. The results are compared with the predictions of a simple model.

Several new levels including two isomeric states have been established in134Ba. Spin and parity assignments of 10+ and 5- are proposed for the isomers. The former may have a configuration while the latter may be either or .

Isomeric states with spinIp=10+ were found in the nuclei138Nd and140Sm. These states are interpreted as having a [vh11/2]-2 configuration. The systematical behaviour of these isomers in the isotones136Ce,138Nd and140Sm is discussed.

Conversion electron measurements confirm the 3- assignment recently proposed for the 1579 keV first excited state in146Gd. From??- ande-?-coincidence data the half life of that state has been determined asT1/2=1.06±0.12 ns.

Bands in180Os have been studied with in-beam spectroscopy methods. Four side bands were established. Configurations have been assigned to them considering the features of similar bands in neighbouring nuclei. New aspects result from an interpretation in the framework of the cranked shell model.