BACKGROUND Common methods for identification of DNA sequence variants use gel electrophoresis or column separation after PCR. METHODS We developed a method for sequence variant analysis requiring only PCR and amplicon melting analysis. One of the PCR primers was fluorescently labeled. After PCR, the melting transition of the amplicon was monitored by high-resolution melting analysis. Differen...

Background: Candida albicans (C. albicans) is a major cause of candidaemia in people with impaired immunity. Blood culture is a “gold standard” for candidaemia detection but is time-consuming and relatively insensitive. We established a real-time PCR assay for C. albicans detection in blood by LightCycler PCR and melting curve analysis. Methods: Five milliliter blood samples from...

BACKGROUND X-linked Charcot-Marie-Tooth type 1 disease has been associated with 280 mutations in the GJB1 [gap junction protein, beta 1, 32 kDa (connexin 32, Charcot-Marie-Tooth neuropathy, X-linked)] gene. High-resolution melting analysis with an automated instrument can be used to scan DNA for alterations, but its use in X-linked disorders has not been described. METHODS A 96-well LightScan...

objective: autism is a neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by difficulty in verbal and non-verbal communication, impaired social interaction, and restricted and repetitive behavior. it has been recently introduced as a multigenic disorder with significant epigenetic effects on its pathology. recently, epigenetic silencing of retinoic acid receptorrelated orphan receptor alpha (rorα) gene ...

INTRODUCTION Acute bacterial meningitis is one of the most severe infectious diseases. Rapid, accurate, and inexpensive diagnosis of bacterial meningitis is crucial for patient management. This study describes a duplex real-time (RT) PCR assay for detection of Neisseria meningitidis and Streptococcus pneumoniae in the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) for meningitis diagnosis using SYBR Green-based RT-...

Ab initio calculations of the melting properties of copper in the pressure range 0-100 GPa are reported. The ab initio total energies and ionic forces of systems representing solid and liquid copper are calculated using the projector augmented wave implementation of density functional theory with the generalized gradient approximation for exchange-correlation energy. An initial approximation to...

A number of melting curves of various materials have recently been measured experimentally and calculated theoretically, but the agreement between different groups is not always good. We discuss here some of the problems which may arise in both experiments and theory. We also report the melting curves of Fe and Al calculated recently using quantum mechanics techniques, based on density function...

The melting curve of hydrogen was computed for pressures up to 200 GPa, using molecular dynamics. The inter- and intramolecular interactions were described by the reactive force field (ReaxFF) model. The model describes the pressure-volume equation of state solid hydrogen in good agreement with experiment up to pressures over 150 GPa, however the corresponding equation of state for liquid devia...

Melting point depression was used as an index of the water potential of rat tissues and serum. Organs removed from anesthetized rats were immediately frozen in liquid nitrogen and ground with mortar and pestle. Aliquots of the resulting frozen powder were suspended in chilled liquid silicone. While the suspension was vigorously stirred and warmed at a constant rate, the temperature of the melti...

S. Taioli,1 C. Cazorla,2,3 M. J. Gillan,2,3 and D. Alfè1,2,3 1Department of Earth Sciences, University College London, Gower Street, London WC1E 6BT, United Kingdom 2Department of Physics and Astronomy, University College London, Gower Street, London WC1E 6BT, United Kingdom 3London Centre for Nanotechnology, University College London, Gower Street, London WC1E 6BT, United Kingdom Received 2 Fe...