IMPORTANT POINTS

1. BUG ALERT (4/19/07) - After taking a gel photo, use the 'Go Back' button on the Gel Photo Screen to return to where you were previously. Do not use the buttons on the navigation bar at the bottom of this screen to do this. Click here for an example.

2. When saving photos, do NOT delete the 'jpg' suffix (e.g. 'photo1.jpg', 'ELISAphoto.jpg'). If the suffix is deleted, the resulting file will not save properly. Click here for an example.

3. If you experience jerky video playback of the HIV cases when using Investigator v2 (or the online videos via the 'access cases' link of the Case It home page), you will need to change the Quicktime settings of Windows XP. Click this link for more information, including a screen shot.

4. For best results, use the online tutorial in conjunction with the simulation, since it has step-by-step detailed instructions with screen shots.

5. When using Case It v5.03, there is a fundamental difference between 'PCR' and '96-well PCR'. The former is used to generate PCR products for certain genetics disease cases, whereas the latter is used primarily to determine viral load for some of the protein-based cases such as HIV (it is also used in 'Option B' of the STD case).

6. Upon opening, Case It v5.03 takes up your entire monitor screen, but there are two ways to view other applications running at the same time.

7. By default, the 'genomic smear' option of Case It v5.03 is 'on'. This means that for DNA files ending with a .gen suffix (e.g. the Sickle Cell case), genomic smears appear automatically when a gel is run (the transparency of the smear can be adjusted by a slider). If you prefer, you can turn the genomic smear feature off - click here to for more information on the genomic smear.

 

NEW FEATURES

1. Multiplex PCR capability has been added to Case It v5.03. A new Salmonella case is provided to demonstrate this feature, but the new Salmonella and STD cases must be downloaded separately (the other cases are included with the simulation download).

2. Case It v5.03 will work efficiently with very large DNA sequences, on the order of entire bacterial genomes (e.g. Salmonella - 4.5 million bp). However, the program still will only display a maximum of 40 DNA fragments per lane - this limitation will be addressed in a future release. Also, when working with very large sequences the Windows XP version is considerably faster than the Mac OSX version - see below.

3. Please be patient when working with very large files, such as the Salmonella genome. When working with very large files (millions of bp), it may take awhile for the program to respond, so do not click more than once when loading, digesting, amplifying, or running gels and blots. You may not see an hourglass or spinner telling you that the program is working.

Note: The software was developed on Windows XP and on Mac OSX v10.4.7 ("Tiger"). It has not been tested on previous versions of the Mac OSX operating sytem, so it is highly recommended that Mac users use it with v10.4.7 or higher. Other than speed with large sequences (see above), the Windows and Mac versions are identical in function and appearance.

Click here to download Case It software

Go back to the Case It Home Page

Contact mark.s.bergland@uwrf.edu if you have any questions or comments, or if you experience any unexpected results.

 

 

 

 

Go back to Case It Home Page