J Occup Health Psychol 4:152–163CrossRef Aronsson G, Gustafsson K

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Bureau voor de Statistiek, Heerlen Cheng GHL, Chan DKS (2008) Who suffers more from job insecurity? A meta-analytic review. Appl Psychol Int Rev 57:272–303. doi:10.​1111/​j.​1464-0597.​2007.​00312.​x CrossRef Ciett PD184352 (CI-1040) (2010) The agency work industry around the world. International Confederation of Private Employment Agencies, Brussels Cohen J (1988) Statistical power analysis for the behavioral sciences, 2nd edn. Erlbaum, Hillsdale Connelly CE, Gallagher DG (2004) Emerging trends in contingent work research. J Manage 30:959–983. doi:10.​1016/​j.​jm.​2004.​06.​008 De Cuyper N, De Witte H (2006) Autonomy and workload among temporary workers: their effects on job satisfaction, organizational commitment, life satisfaction, and self-rated performance. Int J Stress Manage 13:441–459. doi:10.​1037/​1072-5245.​13.​4.​441 CrossRef De Cuyper N, De Jong J, De Witte H, Isaksson K, Rigotti T, Schalk R (2008) Literature review of theory and research on the psychological impact of temporary employment: towards a conceptual model. Int J Manag Rev 10:25–51. doi:10.​1111/​j.​1468-2370.​2007.​00221.

RNA was isolated from four independent cultures of each strain an

RNA was isolated from four independent cultures of each strain and used to generate Cy3- and Cy5-labelled cDNA. For each time point, pairs of Cy3- and Cy5-labelled cDNA of wild-type and one of the two mutants were co-hybridized on DNA microarrays according to a balanced block design [27], with a total of four array hybridizations for each

comparison (Figure  1). In addition to the comparisons of wild-type vs whi mutant samples, cDNA of wild-type samples from 36 and 48 h were hybridized to the 18 h sample to reveal genes changing during development of the wild-type strain (Figure  1). In total, eight different class comparisons were conducted. Figure 1 Schematic view of the experimental design used to compare the transcriptomes of whiA and whiH mutants to that of the wild type selleck M145 strain. A18 refers to whiA mutant

cDNA from 18 h growth, A36 is whiA cDNA from 36 h, A48 from 48 h. W refers to wild type strain M145 and H to the whiH mutant. At 18 h, samples consisted mainly of vegetative mycelium (Veg), while aerial hyphae formation (AHF) was seen at 36 h, and abundant spores (Sp) were produced at 48 h in the wild-type cultures. Only considering differences in expression with a Benjamini-Hochberg corrected p-value < 0.05 as significant [28], we found a total of 285 genes differentially expressed in at least one of the 8 class comparisons analyzed (Additional file 1: Table S1). 114 of them (Figure  GS 1101 2) had significantly different levels of transcription in at least one time point of the whiA or whiH mutant compared to the wild-type, and the following discussion concerns these 114 genes only. Most of the significant effects of the whiA and whiH mutations could be seen at the latest time point, and no gene with significant change of expression between mutant and the parent was detected at 18 h. This Arachidonate 15-lipoxygenase is consistent with our initial assumption that

whiA and whiH specifically affect gene expression in sporulating aerial mycelium. Only a few genes were significantly affected by whiA or whiH disruption at 36 h, including seven in the whiA and six in the whiH strain. At 48 h, 103 genes were changed significantly in the whiA strain compared to the parent (29 with higher expression and 74 with lower expression than in the wild-type), while only 25 where changed in the whiH mutant (7 with higher expression and 18 with lower expression than in the wild-type). The change in expression level among the 114 differentially expressed genes ranged from +1.5 to +6.7 fold for the genes overexpressed in the mutants as compared to the wild type, and -1.5 to -24.7 fold for the under-expressed ones. 44 out of the 114 genes showed more than 2 fold change of the expression level.

The novel information provided by the new device is contained in

The novel information provided by the new device is contained in the wavelength-dependent parameter Sigma(II)λ, the definition of which for technical–methodological reasons differs from the parameter σPSII used by researchers in limnology and oceanography (Koblizek et al. 2001; Kolber et al. 1998). Almost all σPSII values reported in the literature were determined for one color of light, irrespective of the pigment-composition of the investigated sample. Furthermore, σPSII has been measured in widely differing states of the sample, with the PS II acceptor

side being more or less reduced, which leads to corresponding changes in the sigmoidicity and time constant of the light-induced fluorescence rise. In contrast, Sigma(II)λ is click here always measured in a defined quasi-dark reference state, at close to maximal efficiency of PS II. Any changes of the sample with respect to this reference state, e.g., by light-driven down-regulation or photodamage of PS II, do not affect Sigma(II)λ, Navitoclax molecular weight but are contained in the effective PS II quantum yield, Y(II), which is lowered with respect

to the PS II quantum yield, Y(II)max, measured in the reference state, in which also Sigma(II)λ was measured. Therefore, the values of Sigma(II)λ obtained for Chlorella and Synechocystis are substantially higher than the σPSII values reported, e.g., by Koblizek et al. (2001).

Other new parameters introduced for selleckchem work with the multi-color-PAM are PAR(II) and ETR(II), which describe the absolute rates of photon absorption by PS II and electron transport via PS II, respectively. PAR(II) just like Sigma(II)λ is defined for a quasi-dark reference state. With this approach, fluorescence-based estimation of absolute photosynthetic electron transport rates in optically thin suspensions has been given a reliable methodological basis. Related work using the parameter σPSII can be found almost exclusively in the limnology and oceanography literature, which partially may be due to the complexity of its definition, understanding of which requires considerable background knowledge. Comparison of Figs. 4 and 8 demonstrates convincingly that quantitative information on the functional PS II absorption cross section is of general importance for quantitative assessment of photosynthetic activity, which becomes very evident as soon as different colors of light are applied. It may be foreseen that the multi-color-PAM will stimulate future research of the wavelength dependence of photosynthesis not only in suspensions of algae and cyanobacteria but also in whole leaves, macrophytes or even corals and other organisms containing endosymbionts.

For these reasons, nearly parallel intense and tunable monochroma

For these reasons, nearly parallel intense and tunable monochromatic beams provided by synchrotron source appear to be a must for this radiotherapy technique. In a series of publications [11–14]

we have reported on the therapeutic efficacy of short-term intracerebral (i.c.) convection enhanced delivery (CED) of either carboplatin or cisplatin or alternatively prolonged intratumoral (i.t.) infusion of carboplatin either alone or in combi-nation with X-irradiation for the treatment of the F98 rat glioma [11–13]. Irradiations were carried out at the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (ESRF) using 78.8 keV signaling pathway synchrotron X-rays or 6 MV photons, by a medical linear accelerator (LINAC), at the University Hospital of Grenoble, France. Carboplatin was selected for these studies because we previously

have shown that it was highly effective in treating F98 glioma bearing rats [11–14]. However, platinum containing drugs have their limitations [15–17] for the treatment of brain tumors. These include inadequate dose-limiting toxicity and reduced uptake by brain tumors following systemic administration due to the blood brain barrier (BBB) [18]. Delivery of carboplatin by CED was well tolerated when delivered i.c. to F98 glioma bearing rats [11, 12, 14, 19–21] and non-human primates [22] and resulted in prolonged buy DAPT survival and cures of the former.

Cure rates of 20% to 55% were obtained in F98 glioma bearing rats treated with prolonged infusions of either carboplatin or cisplatin using Alzet osmotic pumps alone or in combination with synchrotron X-irradiation. In these studies, the beam energy was tuned at 78.8 keV, which was just above the K-edge of Pt [12, 23]. The first study carried out at the ESRF with cisplatin [23], employed synchrotron X-rays and it was hypothesized that therapeutic efficacy was dependent upon the production of Auger electrons and photoelectrons following irradiation of Pt atoms with monochromatic Reverse transcriptase X-rays. Above the Pt K-edge energy (78.4 keV), extraction of electrons from the K-shell by the photoelectric effect results in the creation of vacancies. The resulting gaps are filled successively by radiative (96%) and non-radiative (4%) transitions from outer shells, thereby resulting in the release of several low energy photons and electrons. If the Pt atoms are located near or within DNA, the emitted low energy electrons can be highly destructive for DNA and lethal to tumor cells [24], even with small concentrations of Pt.

Sessoli R, Tsai H-L, Schake AR, Wang S, Vincent

Sessoli R, Tsai H-L, Schake AR, Wang S, Vincent www.selleckchem.com/products/bmn-673.html JB, Folting K, Gatteschi D, Christou G, Hendrickson DN: High-spin molecules: [Mn 12 O 12 (O 2 CR) 16 (H 2 O) 4 ]. J Am Chem Soc 1993, 115:1804–1816.CrossRef 3. Sessoli R, Gatteschi D, Caneschi A, Novak MA: Magnetic bistability in a metal-ion cluster. Nature 1993, 365:141–143.CrossRef 4. Aubin SMJ, Sun Z, Pardi L, Krzystek J, Folting K, Brunel L-C, Rheingold AL, Christou G, Hendrickson DN: Reduced anionic Mn 12 molecules with half-integer ground states as single-molecule magnets. Inorg Chem 1999, 38:5329–5340.CrossRef 5. Leuenberger MN, Loss D: Quantum computing in molecular magnets.

Nature 2001, 410:789–793.CrossRef 6. Manoli M, Johnstone RDL, Parsons S, Murrie M, Affronte M, Evangelisti M, Brechin

EKA: Ferromagnetic mixed-valent Mn supertetrahedron: towards low-temperature magnetic refrigeration with molecular clusters. Angew Chem Int Ed Engl 2007, 46:4456–4460.CrossRef 7. Evangelisti M, Brechin EK: Recipes for enhanced molecular cooling. Dalton Trans 2010, 39:4672–4676.CrossRef 8. Christou G, Gatteschi D, Hendrickson DN, Sessoli R: Single-molecule magnets. MRS Bulletin 2000, 25:66–71.CrossRef 9. Mannini M, Bonacchi D, Zobbi L, Piras FM, Speets EA, Caneschi A, Cornia A, Magnani A, Ravoo BJ, Reinhoudt DN, Sessoli R, Gatteschi Dabrafenib concentration D: Advances in single-molecule magnet surface patterning through microcontact printing. Nano Lett 2005,5(7):1435–1438.CrossRef 10. Barraza-Lopez S, Avery MC, Park K: First-principles study of a single-molecule magnet Mn 12 monolayer on the Au(111) surface. Phy Rev B Am Phys Soc 2007, 76:224–413. 11. Glaser T, Heidemeier M, Weyhermüller T, Hoffmann R-D, Rupp H, Müller P: Property-oriented rational design of single-molecule magnets: a C 3 -symmetric Mn 6 Cr complex based on three molecular building blocks with a spin ground state of S t = 21/2. Angewandte Chemie International Edition 2006, 45:6033–6037.CrossRef 12. Glaser T: Rational design of single-molecule magnets: a supramolecular approach. Chem Commun 2011, 47:116–130.CrossRef 13. Glaser T, Heidemeier M, Lügger T: The novel triplesalen

ligand bridges three Ni II -salen subunits PAK6 in a meta-phenylene linkage. Dalton Trans 2003, 12:2381–2383.CrossRef 14. Glaser T, Heidemeier M, Grimme S, Bill E: Targeted ferromagnetic coupling in a trinuclear copper(II) complex: analysis of the S t = 3/2 spin ground state. Inorg Chem 2004,43(17):5192–5194.CrossRef 15. Hoeke V, Heidemeier M, Krickemeyer E, Stammler A, Bögge H, Schnack J, Postnikov A, Glaser T: Environmental influence on the single-molecule magnet behavior of [Mn III 6Cr III ]3+: molecular symmetry versus solid-state effects. Inorg Chem 2012, 51:10929–10954.CrossRef 16. Helmstedt A, Müller N, Gryzia A, Dohmeier N, Brechling A, Sacher MD, Heinzmann U, Hoeke V, Krickemeyer E, Glaser T, Bouvron S, Fonin M, Neumann M: Spin resolved photoelectron spectroscopy of [Mn 6III Cr III ] 3+ single-molecule magnets and of manganese compounds as reference layers.

In spite of some known shortcomings of TD-DFT,

In spite of some known shortcomings of TD-DFT, DAPT in vivo such as a poor description of excited states with strong charge transfer character, this approach can be applied to large molecular complexes and provides a useful tool to interpret and complement experimental optical data. As an example, a recent TD-DFT study by Neugebauer (2008) has addressed the issue of the environmental effects on the excitation energies and photophysical properties of LH2 complexes (see also Orio et al. in this issue). Molecular dynamics Usually electronic structure calculations are performed on a fixed nuclear configuration (geometrical structure) within the Born–Oppenheimer approximation check details (see e.g.,

Atkins and Friedman 2005). By using the forces evaluated for that particular geometry, it is possible to find stationary states, minima, and saddle points, on the potential energy surface (PES). In general however, it would be desirable to include explicitly dynamical effects due to the nuclear motion at finite temperature and to obtain free energy surfaces along a

specific reaction coordinate. This aim can be achieved by Molecular Dynamics (MD) simulations that represent a powerful tool to treat explicitly the atomic motion of a pigment–protein complex at realistic thermodynamic conditions and including solvent effects (Frenkel and Smit 1996). In this approach, the Newtonian equations of motion are solved numerically by evolving in time the positions and velocities of each particle by a very small time interval Δt at each Flavopiridol (Alvocidib) MD step. Typical values of the time step Δt are of the order of 1 fs. The PES, which

is used to derive the atomic forces, is usually written in a simple functional form containing bonded terms, such as stretching, bending, and torsional energy, and non-bonded terms, most importantly electrostatic and van der Waals interactions. All these contributions to the total energy contain a number of empirical parameters that need to be predefined and that characterize a particular force field. Some of the most commonly used force fields for biomolecules are the AMBER and CHARMM force fields. MD simulations based on empirical force fields are widely used to study structure–function relationship in proteins with known crystal structures (see, e.g., Warshel 1991; Kosztin and Schulten 2008). This numerical technique has been applied to study the reorganization energy of the initial electron-transfer step in photosynthetic bacterial reaction centers (BRC) (Parson et al. 1998; Parson and Warshel 2008). The MD trajectories can be also used in combination with quantum chemical methods for predicting and characterizing charge transfer processes and optical properties (Damjanovic et al. 2002).

High receptor methylation would also enhance cluster stability, l

High receptor methylation would also enhance cluster stability, leading to stronger amplification of signals under conditions of Kinase Inhibitor Library screening the reduced ligand binding noise at high concentrations of ambient attractant. Figure 4 Two regimes

of bacterial chemotaxis behaviour and their characteristic features. Attractant gradient is indicated. At low concentrations or absence of attractant the behaviour is explorative, while at high concentrations of attractant the behaviour is tracking. See text for details. Finally, we demonstrated the thermal stability of the chemosensory complexes in vivo, which may be an important component of the overall thermal robustness of the chemotaxis pathway [44]. This is consistent with the ability of the common wild type E. coli strains to chemotax efficiently up to 42°C. In these strains, the reduction of the chemotaxis and flagellar

gene expression at high temperature is further balanced by high basal levels of the respective proteins, thus ensuring that chemotaxis is supported throughout the entire physiological range of temperatures. Methods Bacterial strains and plasmids selleck chemicals llc All strains used for FRAP measurements are derivatives of the E. coli K-12 strain RP437 that is conventionally used as the wild type for chemotaxis studies [56]: VS102 carries a deletion of the anti-sigma-factor flgM, resulting in an approximately 6-fold over-expression of all chemotaxis proteins [45], which has been previously shown to facilitate FRAP measurements of chemotaxis clusters in E. coli [37]. LL4 (ΔflgM ΔcheY-cheZ) and LL5 (ΔflgM ΔcheR-cheZ) served as backgrounds corresponding to receptors in low- and intermediate 3-mercaptopyruvate sulfurtransferase modification

state, respectively. In addition, common E. coli K-12 wild type strains MG1655 and W3110 were used as controls for studies of temperature effects on chemotaxis. YFP tagged chemotaxis proteins were expressed from the vector plasmid pTrc99a (Ampr) under control of an isopropyl-β-D-thiogalactopyranoside (IPTG) inducible pTrc promoter [57]. Site-specific mutagenesis was used to introduce mutations into catalytic sites of CheR and CheB [36, 40, 46]. As reported previously, YFP fusions to CheR and CheB are fully functional, whereas fusions to CheA and CheW do not efficiently support chemotaxis but show proper localization to receptor clusters and interactions with their respective binding partners [36, 40, 46]. All expression constructs for the YFP fusions and respective induction levels employed for FRAP are presented in Table 1.

During the following 30 years, his institute developed to become

During the following 30 years, his institute developed to become a widely recognized center of photosynthesis research and bioenergetics. Numerous scientists from all over the world came as guest speakers, guest professors and postdocs. Among his assistants were Peter Böger, Günter Hauska, Wolfgang Haehnel, Richard Berzborn, Walter Oettmeier, Jens-Dirk Schwenn, Günter Wildner and Udo Johanningmeier. They are university professors spread over the whole country—some of them already retired. The number of capable scientists brought forth by Achim Trebst, is really amazing. A position

of associate professor was under the responsibility of Achim’s chair, too. He hired Rudolf Thauer, a capable young microbiologist working on bioenergetics; after a few years, Thauer R788 nmr became a professor in Marburg and

Head of the Max-Planck-Institute for Terrestrial Microbiology in the same town. His successor in Bochum was the microbiologist Karl-Heinz Altendorf. For him this position was a “spring board” to become the Head of Microbiology at the University of Osnabrück. Already in the early 1960s, Achim was in contact with scientists working in the chemical industry, particularly in the Bayer company. A group of excellent chemists, among them Karl-Heinz Büchel and Wilfried Draber, had established a division of herbicide research in the Bayer company in Wuppertal. The photosynthetic apparatus was considered to be the most promising target of herbicides. Achim Trebst, as the German expert in the field of photosynthesis, www.selleckchem.com/GSK-3.html was the ideal partner of the industry chemists. A long lasting fruitful collaboration began between them. Careful structure-function relationship analyses on the one hand gave important

hints for new syntheses to the chemists, and on the other hand, several new inhibitors of photosynthesis permitted Ureohydrolase new important insights into the mechanism of photosynthesis. For photosynthesis research, the most successful compound (which never became a commercial herbicide) was the benzoquinone derivative DBMIB (2,5-dibromo-3-methyl-6-isopropyl-p-benoquinone = dibromothymoquinone). It may not be much of an exaggeration to state that some time or other every photosynthesis researcher must have employed it. DBMIB was a new type of inhibitor, inhibiting photosynthetic electron transport at the oxidizing side of plastoquinone. By means of this inhibitor a series of unsolved questions of the mechanism of electron transport between the two photosystems could be answered. The basic paper [A. Trebst, E. Hart and W. Draber (1970) On a new inhibitor of photosynthetic electron transport. Z. Naturforsch. 25b, 1157–1159] was cited innumerable times. In his research career, Achim returned to the quinones again and again. And he was right: quinones (ubiquinone, plastoquinone) are known to play a particularly important role in energy conservation since Peter Mitchell proposed the well-known chemiosmotic hypothesis.

[Diploma Thesis] 38 Anderson R, Wylezich C, Glaubitz S, Labrenz

[Diploma Thesis] 38. Anderson R, Wylezich C, Glaubitz S, Labrenz M, Jürgens K: Impact of protist grazing on a key bacterial group for biogeochemical cycling in Baltic Sea pelagic oxic /anoxic interfaces. Environ Microbiol in press 39. Guillou G, Moon-van Der Staay SY, Claustre H, Partensky F, Vaulot D: Diversity and abundance of Bolidophyceae (Heterokonta)

in two oceanic regions. Appl Environ Microbiol 1999, 65:4528–4536.PubMed 40. Lim EL, Dennett MR, Caron DA: The ecology of Paraphysomonas imperforate based on studies employing oligonucleotide probe identification in costal water samples and enrichment cultures. Limnol Oceanogr 1999, 44:37–51.CrossRef 41. Karpov SA, Zhukov BF: Phylum Selleckchem Erismodegib Choanomonada. In Protista. 1. Handbook of Zoology. Edited by: Karpov SA. St. Petersburg: Nauka; 2000:321–336. in Russian 42. Leadbeater BSC, Thomsen HA: Order Choanoflagellida. In An Illustrated Guide to the Protozoa. https://www.selleckchem.com/products/Deforolimus.html 2nd edition. Edited by: Lee JJ, Leedale GF, Bradbury P. Kansas USA: Society of Protozoologists; 2000:14–39. 43. Zhukov BF, Karpov SA: Freshwater choanoflagellates. Leningrad: Nauka; 1985. in Russian 44. Fokin SI, Goodkov AV, Karpov SA, Seravin LN: The effect of some steroids on the mitochondria ultrastructure of

amoebae, flagellates and ciliates (Protista). Tsitologia 1993, 35:44–48. in Russian 45. Müller M, Mentel M, van Hellemond JJ, Henze K, Woehle C, Gould SB, Yu RY, van der Giezen M, Tielens AGM, Martin WF: Biochemistry and evolution of anaerobic energy metabolism in eukaryotes. Microbiol Mol Biol Rev 2012, 76:444–495.PubMedCrossRef second 46. Ossipov DV, Karpov SA, Smirnov AV, Rautian MS: Peculiarities of the symbiotic systems of protists with diverse patterns of cellular organisation. Acta Protozool 1997, 37:3–22. 47. Nowack

EC, Melkonian M: Endosymbiotic associations within protists. Phil Trans R Soc Lond B 2010, 365:699–712.CrossRef 48. Clarke KJ, Finlay BJ, Esteban G, Guhl BE, Embley TM: Cyclidium porcatum n. sp.: free-living anaerobic scuticociliate containing a stable complex of hydrogenosomes, Eubacteria and Archaeobacteria. Europ J Protistol 1993, 29:262–270. 49. Shinzato N, Watanabe I, Meng XY, Sekiguchi Y, Tamaki H, Matsui T, Kamagata Y: Phylogenetic analysis and fluorescence in situ hybridization detection of archaeal and bacterial endosymbionts in the anaerobic ciliate Trimyema compressum . Microb Ecol 2007, 54:627–636.PubMedCrossRef 50. Edgcomb V, Orsi W, Bunge J, Jeon SO, Christen R, Leslin C, Holder M, Taylor GT, Suarez P, Varela R, Epstein S: Protistan microbial observatory in the Cariaco Basin, Caribbean. I. pyrosequencing vs sanger insights into species richness. ISME J 2011, 5:1344–1356.PubMedCrossRef 51. Wylezich C, Jürgens K: Protist diversity in suboxic and sulfidic waters of the Black Sea. Environ Microbiol 2011, 13:2939–2956.PubMedCrossRef 52.

This band

can be related to Si-NCs or defect-related stat

This band

can be related to Si-NCs or defect-related states. The weak dependence of the position of this band on Si content can be due to the weak quantum confinement regime. Based on our previous XRD and Raman results for similar samples, we can assume that the size of Si-NCs is in the range of 4 to 6 nm. In summary, two components often obtained in emission decay times when the signal is recorded at one energy can be due to different spatially resolved objects (aSi-NCs and Si-NCs or defects) rather than two relaxation mechanisms different in timescale related with one object selleckchem only, i.e., Si-NCs or aSi-NCs. The second conclusion that can be given based on the obtained preliminary results is that in many cases, the shift of the emission band at CW excitation observed for samples either annealed at different temperatures or obtained at different excess Si contents can be due to different contributions

of defect states into this band. This shift is often related to changes in Si-NC size only. However, at the same time, these two technological parameters change also the number of defects in the matrix, induce a phase transition of Si clusters from amorphous to crystalline, influence the lanthanide distribution [3], and modify the strain at the clusters’ interface, increasing/reducing the tails of density of states [46]. To better understand the dynamics LEE011 of the Er3+-related emission, the time evolution of the 1,535-nm band has been analyzed at different excitation wavelengths: 266 and 488 nm. Figure 3 shows the obtained results together with maximum entropy method (MEM) analysis expressed in the form of α(τ). Figure 3 Time evolution of the 1,535-nm band. (a) PL decay obtained for samples with 37 and 39 at.% of Si at 266 and (b) 488 nm. (c) MEM distribution of emission decay at 266-nm excitation for 37 and 39 at.% of Si and (d) MEM distribution of emission decay at 488-nm excitation for 37 and 39 at.% of Si. In the analysis of kinetic

experiments involving the relaxation of complex materials, such as rare-earth-doped this website glasses, it is often very difficult to choose appropriate models to fit the data. In particular, it is difficult to distinguish between non-exponential models (such as the ‘stretched exponential’) and models that consist of a few discrete exponentials. Thus, many authors use stretched exponential functions to fit the Er3+-related emission decay which, in many cases, is not justifiable. To prove the well-grounded use of two exponential functions to fit our data instead of one exponential or a stretched exponential function, we calculated the inverse Laplace transform of the decay curves obtained by us. This solution allows us to seek a representation for the relaxation process in a space of decay rates, thus obviating the necessity of forcing a particular functional form to fit the data.