Bio-Rad EXQuest Spot Cutter - Manual (Page 531)

PDQuest User Guide
L-6
Note: Most calibration problems arise from incorrectly entering the dates used to
calculate radioactive decay factors for the isotopes. Wrong values can make the
calstrip appear to have decayed to nothing.
Next to Duration (days), enter the number of days that the film was exposed.
Once this data has been entered, you will want to apply it to the 2-D scan and the
calstrip scan. To do so, click on the Apply button.
If you want to apply different calibration data to your 2-D scan than to your calstrip
scan (if, for example, your 2-D scan and calstrip scans use different isotopes), use the
Apply Here button to apply the gel record to the currently displayed image only (2-D
or calstrip scan).
Copying Gel Record Information
If you have scanned several exposures of the same gel, most of the calibration data
will be the same for all of them (except for the exposure start date and length). Instead
of entering all the information for each exposure, you can enter it once, and then copy
it between exposures using the Copy button.
Clicking on Copy will open a list of available gel records. Select the record that you
would like to apply to the current image and click the mouse.
Click on the Cancel button to exit the operation.
L.1.c Sampling the Calibration Strip Segments
The next step in calibrating your gels involves sampling the densities in the segments
of the calstrip to establish a correlation between the sampled intensities recorded by
the scanner and the counts entered into the Calstrip Record.
If you have not already done so, display the calstrips. If you have gels with multiple
exposures, use the Configure Calstrip Windows function to automatically divide the
screen into enough windows to display all the calstrips for a given gel.
Flip Calstrip (if necessary)
If the orientation of the scanned calstrip does not correspond to the order in which the
segment activities are entered in the Calstrip Record, a message will be displayed,