The present proposal plans on developing new methods for analyzing data obtained in pulse fluorometry. It will examine the statistics of such data and study the problems of resolving closely spaced decays. It will investigate non-random errors and will extend previous work on automatic error correction. A newly discovered type of test, the parameter consistency test, will be investigated and extended. Parameter consistency tests help one judge if non-random errors in the original data significantly influence the parameters calculated from the data and/or whether the model assumed for emission decay is consistent with the data. Various test substances will be used to examine the theory: mixtures of dyes, histones, HMG proteins and nucleosomes.
The aim of the work is to enhance the capabilities of pulse fluorometry in Biochemistry and Biophysics. However, the methods developed here should be useful with other techniques in a wide variety of disciplines.
