Trip to Kaoshiung

Weekand pertama kita jalan2 ke Kaoshiung, mumpung masih belum sibuk nie..hehehe

Kaoshiung itu kota terbesar ke dua di Taiwan setelai Tipei. Kaoshiung  adalah daerah setingkat propinsi di Taiwan, Republik Cina. Kota Kaoushiung yang sekarang adalah hasil penggabungan dari Kota Kaoshiung dan Kabupaten Kaoshiung sejak 25 Desember 2010. Kota ini mempunyai bandara terbesar kedua di Taiwan, yaitu Bandara Internasional Kaoshiung dan pelabuhan laut terbesar di Taiwan yaitu Pelabuhan Kaoshiung. 

Dari NPUST kita harus naik bus dulu ke Pingtung Station. Bayarnya 51 $NT. Setelah itu kita naik train menuju ke Kaoushiung. Tiket train PP 56 $NT. 

Di Kaoushiung tempat pertamana yang kita kunjungi adalah Formosa Boulevart Stasion. Tempatnya bagus buwat foto-foto..hehehe

Kaohsiung MRT Formosa Boulevard Station (Chinese: 美麗島站) adalah metro station yang berlokasi di Sinsing District. Station ini adalah transfer station antara jalur merah dan jalur orange. Biaya naik MRT di Kaoshiung rata-rata 20 $NT. MRT di Kaoshiung itu udah yang paling keren. Bener-bener efektif untuk menanggulangi kemacetan. Jakarta harus segera punya MRT seperti disini.

Setelah puas foto-foto di Formosa Boulevard Station, perjalanan di lanjutkan ke Dream Mall. Perjalanan ke Dream Mall itu gratis. Jadi ada shuttle bus gitu yang yang khusus nganter kita kesana. Dream Mall (Chinese: 夢時代購物中心) adalah shopping mall paling besar di Taiwan dan di Asia Timur. Muterin mall ini capek baget dan ga akan ada selesainya. Padahal ga beli apa-apa..hewhewhew..

Abis muter-muter geje di Dream mall dan nyicipin makanan2 yang aku rasa sangat aneh,,sekarang waktunya makan beneran. Mengunjugi satu-satunya masjid di Kaoushiung dan di sebelahnya persis ada Indonesian Restourant milik Bapak Zainal Abidin.  Masjid di Kaoshiung terletak di  No.11, Jianjiun Rd.

Okay,,sekarang makan dulu baru sholat,,hehehe..abis udah pada kelaparan sie. Restoran Indonesia ini memiliki beberapa menu seperti nasi goreng, lalapan ayam, kare ayam, kare daging, soto, tempe goreng, mie ayam, dll. Rata-rata harganya 75-100 $NT. Pas kita ke sana kebetulan bertemu dengan ibu-ibu TKW juga. Setiap akhir pekan biasanya ibu-ibu ini diberi jatah libur oleh majikannya dan mereka biasanya menyempatkan untuk berkumpul di tempat ini sambil ngerujak buah.,mantapp dahh :D

Abis makan dan sholat, perjalanan dilanjutkan ke central park dan night market.

Tapi cerita ke central park dan night marketnya disambung di tulisan berikutnya aja yaa..

udah ga punya tenaga ini mau nulis lagi..xixixix

Welcome to NPUST

Setelah lebih dari seminggu di sini, akhirnya ada waktu juga buwat nge-blog. bukannya sok sibuk, tapi penyakit malesnya masih ga bisa hilang,,hewhew.

Bingung mau cerita dari mana...

Okay, mungkin aku perkenalkan dulu apa itu NPUST. National Pingtung University Science and Technology dan letaknya di bagian selatan Taiwan. Kurang lebih 6 jam perjalanan dari Taipei. Untuk lebih jelasnya silakan tanyakan ke mbah google ya,, :P

Hari pertama di kampus ini ada baiknya kita menjelajah dulu untuk mengetahui lingkungan sekitar. Dan aku sangat terkejut betapa luasnya kampus ini. Bayangin aja dari dormitori ke main gate aja butuh 45 menit jalan kaki. Kebanyakan mahasiswa sini kemana-mana pake scooter. 

Kita anak baru yang belum punya scooter terpaksa kemana-mana harus jalan. Dan itu sangat-sangat melelahkan. 

Hari pertama di kampus,,narsis di depan gedung Office of International Affair

Mahasiswa internasional yang kuliah di kampus ini rata2 berasal dari Thailand, vietnam, Malaysia, Afrika, Amerika latin dan Negara-negara di kepulauan Pasifik dan tentu saja dari Indonesia juga banyak.

International Student Orientation 2012

Dan,,,akhirnya aku ucapkan selamat datang di kampus baru, dunia baru, teman baru, makanan baru, dan yang terpenting harus punya semangat baru. Keep fight ^_^

Agarose Gel Electrophoresis

Preparation of Agarose Gel

• DNA Agarose gels can be used to separate and visualize DNA of various sizes. Before casting an Agarose gel, consult Table-1 to determine the appropriate percent Agarose gel to use, based on the size of DNA to be separated.

      Table-1 Gel Concentration Required for DNA Separation

• Agarose is expensive, so don’t waste it. Don’t make a huge gel if you don’t have a lot of samples to run or if you don’t need to run them that far.
• Gels are described in terms of percents: 0.7%, 0.8%, 1%, and 1.2% are pretty common gel percentages. The percentage gel you run depends on a few things: what size fragment you’re looking for, how good you need the separation of fragments to be, and whether or not you will be Gene Cleaning gel slices after you electrophorese them.
• The percentage measurement is a weight/volume thing. For example, a 100% gel would be 100g agarose in 100mL TAE. (TAE is Tris-Acetate-EDTA; it’s a buffer and we make gels with TAE and run them in TAE buffer.) You wouldn’t make a 100% gel, though, that was just an example. More commonly, a 1% gel would be 1g agarose in 100mL TAE.
• We have gel boxes and casting trays that vary in size. The volume of gel you will need to make will depend on the size of the casting tray. For the smallest gel trays, 30-40mL is a convenient volume. The wells of the gel are made by inserting a comb into the slots in the tray, and as the agarose hardens around the comb, wells are formed. The thicker you pour your gel, the deeper the wells will be.
• To make a gel, first figure out what volume you want. You can pour water into the tray and when the wells look deep enough, you can record the volume and make your gel using that volume. Alternatively, you can make a set amount of gel and eyeball it as you pour it, saving the rest in a flask with Saran Wrap on the top (so the TAE doesn’t evaporate out over time).
• Then figure out what mass of agarose to use for the percentage gel you want. For example, if you are making a 30mL gel that you want to be 0.8%, the amount of agarose to use is 0.24g. Measure out the agarose using wax weighing paper. We keep some agarose in a scintillation vial near the balance; that way you don’t need a spatula to measure it out. Put the agarose in an Erlenmeyer flask. Measure out the correct volume of TAE using a graduated cylinder. 1X TAE is in a jug thing near the door. Swirl the contents of the flask and cover the top with a paper towel.
• Microwave your gel for however long it takes to melt completely. You don’t want particulate matter in your gel. Be careful not to burn yourself, because it will be hot. Let it cool on the benchtop for five or so minutes (if you’re in a big rush you can run water over the surface of the flask to cool it down).

• Next add ethidium bromide -- this is a chemical that intercalates DNA and makes it visible under UV light. EtBr is a potent mutagen, so make sure you don’t get any on your fingers or on yourself, and don’t spread it around the lab. You might want to wear gloves. The amount of EtBr to add is as follows: of a 0.5mg/mL stock solution (that’s what most of the stuff around the lab is), add 1/1000 to your gel. For example, if we go back to our 30mL gel, then you would add 30°L of EtBr.
• The casting trays we have have this rubber stuff around the edges that makes a tight seal when you put them in the gel boxes sideways. They also have notches where you can insert a comb. The size comb to use depends on the width you want your wells to be. Swirl the flask immediately before pouring the gel into the tray to make sure it’s mostly all at the same temperature; otherwise your gel will harden in a weird manner and will be ruined. It will take about 20 minutes for a small gel to harden enough to be used, longer for bigger gels. If you’re in a big hurry, you can pour them in the cold room.
• When you are finished pouring your gel, rinse out your Erlenmeyer really well with water before you put it in the wash tub, because whoever is doing the dishes will not want to get EtBr all over him/herself. Also, hardened agarose is hard to clean off of glassware. 

Set Up and Run Eletrophoresis

After the agarose gel has solidified, sample loading and electrophoresis can begin. Agarose gels can be run in many different types of electrophoresis buffers. Nucleic acid agarose gel electrophoresis is usually conducted with either Tris-Acetate-EDTA (TAE) buffer or Tris-Borate-EDTA (TBE) buffer. While TAE buffer provides faster electrophoretic migration of linear DNA and better resolution of supercoiled DNA, TBE buffers have a stronger buffering capacity for longer or higher voltage electrophoresis runs.

• Prepare samples for gel loading. Loading volume is dependent upon the type of comb used (i.e., well thickness and length) and thickness of the gel.

• When loading volume is determined, add standard nucleic acid sample loading dye to a final 1x concentration to make samples dense for underlaying into sample wells

• Load the samples into the wells using standard pipets.

• Place the lid on the DNA cell carefully. Do not disturb the samples. The Sub-Cell GT system lids attach to the base in only one orientation. To attach the lid correctly, match the red and black banana jacks on the lid with the red and black banana plugs of the base.

• Power requirements vary depending on gel thickness, length and concentration, and type of electrophoresis buffer used. Use 20V to 110 V for most purpose. Refer to 2 for DNA size migration with sample loading dyes for the different Sub-Cell GT systems.

Ethidium Bromide Staining Procedure after Electrophoresis

• Place the gel into the appropriate volume of 0.5 µg/ml ethidium bromide (EtBr) stain for 15–30 minutes. Use enough staining solution to cover the entire gel.

• Destain the gel for 10–30 minutes in dH2O using the same volume used for staining. Note: Ethidium Bromide can be removed from the DNA with extended destaining. This will cause lower sensitivity of detection. However, insufficient destaining will create higher background fluorescence.

• Rinse the gel briefly with dH2O to remove any residual staining solution.

• Place the gel on a UV transilluminator for nucleic acid visualization and analysis.

DNA/Ethidium Bromide complexes may be illuminated with UV light of 254, 302, or 366 nm. Sensitivity decreases with illumination at higher wavelengths. However, nicking of DNA will increase below 302 nm.