51,090 research outputs found
PROTEOMIC ANALYSIS OF TWO DIFFERENT STATES OF NAEGLERIA FOWLERI
Naegleria fowleri are free-living ameboflagellates found in soil and freshwater habitats throughout the world that cause a fatal disease in humans called Primary Amoebic Meningoencephalitis (PAM). Mechanisms of host resistance or susceptibility to infection have not been fully elucidated, and possible treatment methods are still sub optimal. The disease is diagnosed using specific laboratory tests available in only a few laboratories in the United States. Because of the rarity of infection and difficulty in initial detection, more than often PAM is misdiagnosed. Therefore, it is very important to find causative marker for early detection of an infection. The purpose of this study is to create a proteomic signature map using two-dimensional gel electrophoresis (2-D gel) and recommend a subset of proteins that may be directly linked to the pathogenic state of N. fowleri. Replicates of 2-D Gels were created for both strains of N. fowleri and the proteomic templates from these gels were compared with each other. Scatter Plots were generated measuring the density of protein spots from 2-D gels being analyzed for each study. For each strains of N. fowleri, the 2-D gels from each study were compared within and compared between the two studies for reproducibility in data. The resulting correlation values for all of the Scatter Plots were greater or equal to 0.90. Finally, the representative proteomic template for axenically grown N. fowleri and mouse passaged N. fowleri were compared and the correlation value of 0.60 was observed. This confirmed our theory that these two strains or states of N. fowleri have very different protein expressions, and we were able to identify a subset of proteins, both over expressed and newly synthesized, that may be linked to the highly pathogenic state of N. fowleri
Washington Photometry of the Globular Clusters in the Virgo Giant Elliptical Galaxy M86
We present a photometric study of the globular clusters (GCs) in the Virgo
giant elliptical galaxy M86 based on Washington CT1 images. The colors of the
GCs in M86 show a bimodal distribution with a blue peak at (C -T1) = 1.30 and a
red peak at (C -T1) = 1.72. The spatial distribution of the red GCs is
elongated similarly to that of the stellar halo, while that of the blue GCs is
roughly circular. The radial number density profile of the blue GCs is more
extended than that of the red GCs. The radial number density profile of the red
GCs is consistent with the surface brightness profile of the M86 stellar halo.
The GC system has a negative radial color gradient, which is mainly due to the
number ratio of the blue GCs to the red GCs increasing as galactocentric radius
increase. The bright blue GCs in the outer region of M86 show a blue tilt: the
brighter they are, the redder their mean colors get. These results are
discussed in comparison with other Virgo giant elliptical galaxies.Comment: 15 pages, 13 figures, Accepted by Journal of the Korean Astronomical
Societ
Colour Change Measurements of Gravitational Microlensing Events by Using the Difference Image Analysis Method
Detecting colour changes of a gravitational microlensing event induced by the
limb-darkened extended source effect is important to obtain useful information
both about the lens and source star. However, precise measurements of the
colour changes are hampered by blending, which also causes colour changes of
the event. In this paper, we show that although the colour change measured from
the subtracted image by using the recently developed photometric method of the
``difference image analysis'' (DIA) differs from the colour change measured by
using the conventional method based on the extraction of the individual source
stars' point spread functions, the curve of the colour changes (colour curve)
constructed by using the DIA method enables one to obtain the same information
about the lens and source star, but with significantly reduced uncertainties
due to the absence of blending. We investigate the patterns of the DIA colour
curves for both single lens and binary lens events by constructing colour
change maps.Comment: total 8 pages, including 4 figures and no table, MNRAS, in pres
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