Highland Minstrel Boy

I hae wander\u27d mony a night in June,Along the banks of Clyde,Beneath a bright and bonnie moon,Wi\u27 Mary at my side: As summer was she to mine ee,And to my heart a joy,And weel she loo\u27d to raom wi\u27 me,Her Highland Minstrel boy,I hae wander\u27d mony a night in June,Along the banks of Clyde,Beneath a bright and bonnie moon,Wi\u27 Mary at my sid

Variation of the magnetic ordering in GdT2_2Zn20_{20} (T= Fe, Ru, Os, Co, Rh and Ir) and its correlation with the electronic structure of isostructural YT2_2Zn20_{20}

Magnetization, resistivity and specific heat measurements were performed on the solution-grown, single crystals of six GdT$_2$Zn$_{20}$ (T = Fe, Ru, Os, Co, Rh and Ir) compounds, as well as their Y analogues. For the Gd compounds, the Fe column members manifest a ferromagnetic (FM) ground state (with an enhanced Curie temperature, $T_{\mathrm{C}}$, for T = Fe and Ru), whereas the Co column members manifest an antiferromagnetic (AFM) ground state. Thermodynamic measurements on the YT$_2$Zn$_{20}$ revealed that the enhanced $T_{\mathrm{C}}$ for GdFe$_2$Zn$_{20}$ and GdRu$_2$Zn$_{20}$ can be understood within the framework of Heisenberg moments embedded in a nearly ferromagnetic Fermi liquid. Furthermore, electronic structure calculations indicate that this significant enhancement is due to large, close to the Stoner FM criterion, transition metal partial density of states at Fermi level, whereas the change of FM to AFM ordering is associated with filling of electronic states with two additional electrons per formula unit. The degree of this sensitivity is addressed by the studies of the pseudo-ternary compounds Gd(Fe$_x$Co$_{1-x}$)$_2$Zn$_{20}$ and Y(Fe$_x$Co$_{1-x}$)$_2$Zn$_{20}$ which clearly reveal the effect of 3d band filling on their magnetic properties.Comment: 32 pages, 28 figure

Multivariate analysis and classification of pathogenic priming components in wild-type and lab mice

Animal models have a long history of being used in research for the purpose of investigating biological processes and testing the effect of specific compounds on the functionality of biological processes. Different types of mice are used as animal models, most notably inbred and outbred strains. This study investigates the effect of certain priming conditions on the production of cytokines in wild mice and lab mice, using multivariate data analysis. This analytical study involves exploratory analysis, in the form of PCA, MANOVA and LDA, training of different classification models and their validation. Based on the conducted exploratory analysis, certain priming conditions (CD3CD28, CPG and PG) have been identified as clearly defined groups by PCA and LDA, in both wild mice and lab mice. MANOVA concluded that most of the variables tested are statistically significant in determining group association. Subsequent classification modeling determined that the Random Forest algorithm is the most accurate in predicting class, in both the wild and lab mice. The performed analysis has given insight into the major trends exhibited by the data, but further post-processing analysis could potentially extract more data. The results of this study could be used to further investigate the discovered pattern in the data or be supplemented by comparing additional mouse strains under the same experimental conditions

Evaluating the gene expression levels of NFkB2 and RELA after LPS priming

The regulatory process of inflammation is very important for the well-being of an organism. Disruption of this process can lead to very dire consequences. The innate immune system is responsible in activating the inflammatory response. As a result of an inflammatory response, inflammasome complexes such as NLRP3 can activate. The activation of such a complex can lead to cytokine upregulation and even cellular death via pyrapoptosis. The NLRP3 inflammasome can be primed by LPS stimulation. The NFkB protein family functions as transcription factors that can increase the expression levels of genes involved in inflammation, immunology and cell survival, including NLRP3. The aim of this thesis project was to evaluate the expression levels of the NFkB family members RELA and NFkB2 after LPS priming. In order to accomplish this, stable reference genes are necessary in order to perform data normalization. In order to find stable reference genes, a panel of commonly used reference genes were amplified using RT-qPCR. Once stable reference genes have been identified and selected, the expression levels of the genes of interest were analysed using the statistical software SPSS. This was performed in order to determine whether or not LPS priming upregulates the expression of the genes of interest. The analysis of NFkB2 and RELA expression levels after LPS priming indicates that there is a significant difference between the unprimed and the primed samples, but the conclusions that can be drawn are limited as protein interactions were not observed and the scope of the research was relatively narrow, encompassing only two out of the family of five NFkB proteins