It's not all that hard to exceed it with a protein crystal too.

A 50 um wide lysozyme crystal sitting in a 50x50um beam will scatter into a single spot up to:

I = 7e-14*flux*(F/mosaic)^2

Where I is in photons/s
flux is incident photons/s
mosaic is in deg
F is the structure factor of the relevant hkl in electrons.

This is the peak photon arrival rate when the hkl is exactly on the Ewald sphere.  So, if we have F=130, mosaic=0.02 deg (typical for room temp), and flux = 1e12 ph/s we expect a peak count rate of 3e6 ph/s.  If that is a 1-pixel spot, then it will exceed the maximum count rate of Pilatus2 and Eiger1 detectors (2e6 ph/s).  For lysozyme, 35% of all hkls to 2.0A have F > 130.

That said, the "instant retrigger" feature of Pilatus3 and Eiger2 does a much better job of correcting for this. Also, spots are usually larger than 1 pixel. I often advise room temperature collection with 1 deg images on my Pilatus3 because this allows us to run unattenuated. The error from the retrigger correction is significantly smaller than the error incurred by photons lost in the 1-2 ms gap between images on Pilatus.  This second error is all but eliminated by Eiger's much shoter read-out period, but only Eiger2 has an instant retrigger feature.

And no, Dectris didn't pay me to say that.

The long and short of it is that whenever you use a counting device your intensity data are fundamentally non-linear.  Instant retrigger is just one of the various things to try to correct the non-linearity.

How much impact does non-linearity have?  Surprisingly, not that much!  As long as the non-linearity is uniform across the detector face the impact on the more popular data quality metrics is hard to detect if you don't know what you're looking for.  It is not hard to test this for yourself.  All you need to do is take your favorite dataset's images and run the pixels through some non-linear function.  I just tried this with a lysozyme dataset using what should be a horrible thing to do: new_pixel = 10*sqrt(old_pixel). After doing the same processing and refinement protocol both before (normal) and after sqrt-ing the pixel values I get:

stat  normal  sqrt-ed
Rwork   17.4  22.0
Rfree   21.7  25.4
CC1/2   99.8  97.6
dmin     1.47  1.55
ISa     15   315
low-res bin:
Rmeas    4.7   8.8
I/SIGMA 32.1  32.8
CCano   59    36

Ok. ISa is weird, and stats are generally poorer after making the data hugely non-linear, but not so poor as to make you suspect something so massively wrong with the data.  The anomalous signal is lower, but amazingly still there. I suspect this is because anomalous differences are relative differences and even wiht a non-linear detector small relative differences can still be measured. Food for thought I suppose.

Oh, and read-out noise also doesn't hurt resolution nearly as much as you might think.  You can also try this for yourself by adding random noise to your pixels, or by simply adding pure background images to your data images.  You have to add quite a lot of background before you start to notice its impact. This is especially true for poorly-diffracting crystals (high WilsonB factor) where the drop in intensity with increasing Bragg angle is very steep.  The spots just "shut off" over a very narrow range in resolution.  High background can shift the limit around in this narrow range, but not by much. Anomalous differences are even less sensitive to background than resolution.  This is because the "background" for anomalous differences is the spot photons themselves.

You don't believe me, do you?  Try it.  Use merge2cbf to add images together. You will find it in your XDS program directory.

-James Holton
MAD Scientist

On 6/8/2020 1:35 PM, Winter, Graeme (DLSLtd,RAL,LSCI) wrote:
Hi Jon

Ambiguous phrasing, perhaps - the detector has a maximum count rate, as events per second, and it is easy to exceed this with a good quality small molecule crystal on an undulator beamline thus under record the intensity of strong reflections

Best wishes Graeme

On 8 Jun 2020, at 20:55, bogba...@yahoo.co.uk <mailto:bogba...@yahoo.co.uk> wrote:

Re: "it turns out to be very very easy to exceed the count rate where the detector electronics can keep up."

Sorry if this is obvious, but I take it you mean "_can't_" keep up?

Jon Cooper

On 4 Jun 2020 13:06, "Winter, Graeme (DLSLtd,RAL,LSCI)" <graeme.win...@diamond.ac.uk <mailto:graeme.win...@diamond.ac.uk>> wrote:

    Dear All,

    A small word of caution regarding chemical crystallography on an
    MX-like beamline - if you have a bright source, a well
    diffracting crystal and a pixel array detector it is perfectly
    possible to lose counts in the strongest reflections without
    noticing - certainly without going over the nominal detector
    count limits if your mosaic spread is very small

    At Diamond we faced this issue with i19, which is a dedicated
    chemical crystallography beamline on an undulator source, with a
    Pilatus 2 detector - it turns out to be very very easy to exceed
    the count rate where the detector electronics can keep up. This
    is somewhat less of a problem with Pilatus 3 and Eiger 2X detectors.

    So: I would strongly suggest really turning down the intensity on
    the beam, use fine slicing and be prepared to check that the data
    are OK before removing your sample. You can solve and refine the
    structure with e.g. SHELX and get an F^2 calc vs. I ops plot
    which would show systematically under measured low angle
    reflections.

    We also have a tool in development to bolt on to DIALS called
    screen19 which estimates the true peak photon rate from a “quick
    screening run” to offer insights into data collection options -
    https://github.com/xia2/screen19 - this is not perfect but you
    could find it useful. Our chemical crystallography users
    certainly find it helpful for planning their experiments.

    Best wishes Graeme

        On 4 Jun 2020, at 10:51, Alker, Andre M.
        <00004599f25026c0-dmarc-requ...@jiscmail.ac.uk
        <mailto:00004599f25026c0-dmarc-requ...@jiscmail.ac.uk>> wrote:

        Dear Jiyuan,

        maybe I can add something from the small molecule
        crystallographer view :-)

        Crystallization:
        For crystallization of small molecules you normally use
        solvents and water or mixtures as mentioned already before.
        At my lab the most successful way to crystallise is
        evaporation. Please use small glass vials (no plastic, some
        solvents will solute them too).

        You can also use crystallization kits. Here you can use
        Bernhard Spinglers kit and or the Hampton kit. The
        Hampton kit didn't work so well for my molecules. I also
        bought Bernhard's kit but had no time to test it so far. I
        have to say I'm only using crystallization kits at the moment
        as last try. Maybe that changes in the future.

        Measurement:
        Of course you can use the synchrotron for small molecules at
        the protein beamline. I'm using the PXII protein beamline at
        the SLS (Swiss light source) for my small molecules if the
        crystals are too small for my inhouse system or there is a
        problem with my inhouse system. To get the resolution you
        need for structure solution and a good refinement you have to
        change the wavelength to 0.7Å. Collect always at least 360
        degrees  in steps of 0.5 degrees or smaller. Use high filters
        and short exposure times to secure your crystal against
        radiation damage. Normally 10 to 20% of the beam and 0.01 to
        0.1 sec work fine depending on the crystal size. Do the
        measurement at low temperatures as usual for protein
        crystals. Here are my parameters for the SLS-PXII beamline
        equipped with an Eiger detector (wavelength 0.7Å, biggest
        aperture, 20% transmission, step 0.1 deg/0.01 sec, 1800
        degrees, 100K).

        Processing, structure solution and refinement:
        I process the eiger data with XDS,
        for structure solution I'm using shelxs or shelxd,
        for structure refinement shelxl.

        But as mentioned before there are a lot of programs doing
        processing, structure solution and refinement. I just started
        to use Olex as well for solution and refinement. In very
        earlier times I also used hkl2000 for data processing but in
        my opinion XDS is doing a very good job for small molecule data.

        Last but not least I deeply agree with Navdeep to read
        Mueller et al.'s excellent book about Crystal Structure
        Refinement.

        Hope this helps a little bit :-)

        Best regards,
        André






        André Alker
        Senior Scientist, pCMC Analytics
        Roche Pharmaceutical Research and Early Development
        Roche Innovation Center Basel
        F. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd
        Grenzacherstrasse 124
        4058 Basel, Switzerland
        Phone: +41-61-6880935
        email: andre_m.al...@roche.com <mailto:andre_m.al...@roche.com>

        Upcoming absences:
        ...

        Hinweis:
        Der Inhalt dieser E-Mail kann vertrauliche Angaben enthalten,
        die nur für den (die) namentlich genannten Empfänger bestimmt
        sind. Falls Sie nicht der Adressat dieser E-Mail sind, nehmen
        Sie Verbindung mit dem Absender auf und löschen Sie diese
        Mitteilung. Jede unbefugte Verwendung der in dieser
        Mitteilung enthaltenen Informationen ist untersagt.
        This message is intended only for the use of the named
        recipient(s) and may contain confidential and/or privileged
        information. If you are not the intended recipient, please
        contact the sender and delete this message. Any unauthorized
        use of the information contained in this message is prohibited.


        On Wed, Jun 3, 2020 at 7:40 PM Navdeep Sidhu
        <sid...@gmail.com <mailto:sid...@gmail.com>> wrote:

            Dear Jiyuan,

            There was a similar question on the bulletin board some 6
            years ago; my
            response then (links below) complements some of the other
            great
            suggestions already made in answer to your question:

            
<https://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/webadmin?A2=ind1403&L=CCP4BB&P=R355103>,
            and
            
<https://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/webadmin?A2=ind1403&L=CCP4BB&P=R358060>.

            I believe some 90% of small molecule structures are
            solved using the
            SHELX suite of programs by Prof. Sheldrick, so that
            should be a great
            start. The programs are very easy to use, with great
            defaults. (There
            used to be a joke that to solve this or that problem, all
            you had to do
            is start one of his programs and press enter 5 times.)

            As before, I'd highly recommend you read Mueller et al.'s
            excellent book
            with detailed tutorials. It provides the data and walks
            you through
            detailed examples in solving and refining small molecule
            structures:

            Peter Müller, Regine Herbst-Irmer, Anthony Spek, Thomas
            Schneider and
            Michael Sawaya. IUCr/Oxford, 2006
            <http://ukcatalogue.oup.com/product/9780198570769.do>.

            I'm sure you'll have much fun doing small molecules in
            addition to large
            molecules. We all did.

            All the best,
            Navdeep


            ---
            On 01.06.20 23:50, Jiyuan Ke wrote:
            > Hi Everyone,
            >
            > I want to crystallize a small organic molecule. I have
            very limited
            > experience in small molecule crystallography. I found
            that the Crystal
            > Screen HT from the Hampton research is good for both
            small molecule and
            > macromolecule crystallization. Plan to set up a sitting
            drop screen just
            > like setting up protein crystallization. I don’t know
            if this is the
            > proper way to do it. Is the MRC sitting drop 2-well
            plate (HR3-083) used
            > for protein crystallization good for small molecule
            crystallization? Are
            > there any special plates used for small molecule
            crystallization? Is
            > room temperature ok or not?
            >
            > For data collection, can I use the beamline for protein
            crystals to
            > collect data on small molecule crystals? Larger
            oscillation angle,
            > shorter exposure, reduced beam intensity?
            >
            > For structure determination, is SHELXL the preferred
            software for
            > solving small molecule structures?
            >
            > If anyone has experience in small molecule
            crystallography, please
            > help.  Thanks!
            >
            > Best Regards,
            >
            > --
            >
            > *Jiyuan Ke, Ph.D.*
            >
            > *
            > *
            >
            > Research Investigator
            >
            > H3 Biomedicine Inc.
            >
            > 300 Technology Square, Floor 5
            >
            > Cambridge, MA 02139
            >
            > Phone: 617-252-3923
            >
            > Email: jiyuan...@h3biomedicine.com
            <mailto:jiyuan...@h3biomedicine.com>
            <mailto:jiyuan...@h3biomedicine.com
            <mailto:jiyuan...@h3biomedicine.com>>
            >
            > Website: www.h3biomedicine.com
            <http://www.h3biomedicine.com/>
            <http://www.h3biomedicine.com/>
            >
            >
            >
            >
            >
            >
            >
            > [This e-mail message may contain privileged,
            confidential and/or
            > proprietary information of H3 Biomedicine. If you
            believe that it has
            > been sent to you in error, please contact the sender
            immediately and
            > delete the message including any attachments, without
            copying, using, or
            > distributing any of the information contained therein.
            This e-mail
            > message should not be interpreted to include a digital
            or electronic
            > signature that can be used to authenticate an
            agreement, contract or
            > other legal document, nor to reflect an intention to be
            bound to any
            > legally-binding agreement or contract.]
            >
            >
            
------------------------------------------------------------------------
            >
            > To unsubscribe from the CCP4BB list, click the
            following link:
            >
            https://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/webadmin?SUBED1=CCP4BB&A=1
            >

            
########################################################################

            To unsubscribe from the CCP4BB list, click the following
            link:
            https://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/webadmin?SUBED1=CCP4BB&A=1

            This message was issued to members of
            www.jiscmail.ac.uk/CCP4BB
            <http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/CCP4BB>, a mailing list hosted
            by www.jiscmail.ac.uk <http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/>, terms
            & conditions are available at
            https://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/policyandsecurity/


        ------------------------------------------------------------------------

        To unsubscribe from the CCP4BB list, click the following link:
        https://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/webadmin?SUBED1=CCP4BB&A=1



--
    This e-mail and any attachments may contain confidential,
    copyright and or privileged material, and are for the use of the
    intended addressee only. If you are not the intended addressee or
    an authorised recipient of the addressee please notify us of
    receipt by returning the e-mail and do not use, copy, retain,
    distribute or disclose the information in or attached to the e-mail.
    Any opinions expressed within this e-mail are those of the
    individual and not necessarily of Diamond Light Source Ltd.
    Diamond Light Source Ltd. cannot guarantee that this e-mail or
    any attachments are free from viruses and we cannot accept
    liability for any damage which you may sustain as a result of
    software viruses which may be transmitted in or with the message.
    Diamond Light Source Limited (company no. 4375679). Registered in
    England and Wales with its registered office at Diamond House,
    Harwell Science and Innovation Campus, Didcot, Oxfordshire, OX11
    0DE, United Kingdom


    ------------------------------------------------------------------------

    To unsubscribe from the CCP4BB list, click the following link:
    https://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/webadmin?SUBED1=CCP4BB&A=1



--

This e-mail and any attachments may contain confidential, copyright and or privileged material, and are for the use of the intended addressee only. If you are not the intended addressee or an authorised recipient of the addressee please notify us of receipt by returning the e-mail and do not use, copy, retain, distribute or disclose the information in or attached to the e-mail. Any opinions expressed within this e-mail are those of the individual and not necessarily of Diamond Light Source Ltd. Diamond Light Source Ltd. cannot guarantee that this e-mail or any attachments are free from viruses and we cannot accept liability for any damage which you may sustain as a result of software viruses which may be transmitted in or with the message. Diamond Light Source Limited (company no. 4375679). Registered in England and Wales with its registered office at Diamond House, Harwell Science and Innovation Campus, Didcot, Oxfordshire, OX11 0DE, United Kingdom


------------------------------------------------------------------------

To unsubscribe from the CCP4BB list, click the following link:
https://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/webadmin?SUBED1=CCP4BB&A=1



########################################################################

To unsubscribe from the CCP4BB list, click the following link:
https://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/webadmin?SUBED1=CCP4BB&A=1

This message was issued to members of www.jiscmail.ac.uk/CCP4BB, a mailing list 
hosted by www.jiscmail.ac.uk, terms & conditions are available at 
https://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/policyandsecurity/

Reply via email to