“peak” or not to “peak”

Methods to assess TEM and AFM images, surfactant proteins A and D

This is an example of why i get frustrated with peak detection apps…. vertical axis is grayscake 0-255, x axis not numbered is nm (which I have to calculate against a bar marker on the original micrograph) and is not really relevant here.

Peaks that are found are clearly marked at the point of valleys on each side, by the program (it is an excel program called PeakValleyDetectionTemplate.xls) and what this smooth function (smooth 11) thinks is a valley is highlighted in pink…. so i didn’t miss anything…. or add anything.

My draw program has a “snap too” function that snaps to the valley lines detected so I don’t even make the judgements in identifying those vertical valley indicator lines there so this program measures width between peaks with the lines (which I colored pink) and are easy to follow. BUT…

My ADDED arrow on the left points to a peak that I certainly would have called a peak that was not detected by this app, my added arrow on right points to a peak that I certainly would NOT have called a peak which this app thought was a peak (I could not even find a drop in grayscale of one single pixel).

Just out of wanting to know the facts in this study of SP-D, and trying to help determine the structure of the common multimer of SP-D (the dodecamer), I dont change those chosen valleys from the apps, I just report the results whether I agree with them or not. But sometimes these apps “think” (lol) too hard about lag, threshold, smooth, incidence, width, deviation, and influence etc…. and gloss over the obvious, not able to consider chance, inherent variability, possible radial and bilateral symmetry etc……..therefore at this point they are really not as good (in the method that I am using them) as human judgement (mainly mine ha ha ha) in my humble opinion. I also accept that this is a simple molecule, bilateral, with maybe 11-17 peaks routinely found. So its not a massive chaotic mess, but sometimes they just dont work.

Verge of a Dream: Anything I ever wanted

Prose and Poems

Another train will
Roll in, I won’t
think it is me
missing you.
When you were
In a curtain of
Silence… with me
Thinking and feeling
But a tag along of
No importance,
Instead
You had planned
without yourself in
The picture only for
me, unexplained and
luckily unexplainable.
Not making up
for a wrong
but like a surprise party
That, that day gave me
Anything I ever
Wanted when
The dream the
Night before
Had said I was
All alone following
Invisible
Behind someone
Who had jumped
The turnstile into
Lives they
Are lessening
by their presence.

RLB 03/17/2023

recycle reuse respect reduce refuse reclaim repurpose refurbush replenish react reassess reaffirm

Rants

recycle reuse respect reduce refuse reclaim repurpose refurbush replenish react reassess reaffirm

OK, you get it,  it is the universal  ‘RE‘ principle —  is REquired for a sustainable world-culture:  Here are 11 REasons to think about tomorrow with the today’s earth in mind.

refuse products packaged in non-recyclable containers

recycle everything possible, including left over food in composts, leaves, twigs and branches, dead houseplants, etc

reuse everything possible, even if it is to be used for something other than it was intended (use common sense)

respect the environment – it is the only earth we have at this time

reduce purchases and frivolous wants and trips and dumb stuff, you dont need a bigger TV or new phone if the old one works

reclaim areas of concrete, blacktop, unkempt public land for green zones,

repurpose clothes, and posessions for other uses, eg, clothes shaped into rags, shoes into highways,

refurbush what you own, rather than raze and build new

replenish areas depleted from misuse and misguided utilization with green space

react  to violations in clean air and water legislation from corporate greed

reassess your habits and determine areas where you can be more effective with purchase and waste control

reaffirm your commitment to NO single use plastic containers

I don’t understand

Rants

I don’t understand these three critical things:

1. how my children are at once my greatest pleasure and greatest pain

2. how i can have so many ideas and not enough years left to work on them

3. how i can neither love nor be loved

Eight dodecamers: SP-D – CRD peak height and valley

Methods to assess TEM and AFM images, surfactant proteins A and D

These data are the pretty final. The next dodecamers will be added as individuals only, not as the sum of the long list of plots (e.g. 508 trimer plots) but using only an N of a dodecamer (which seems to me to produce the best data. None of these data have had the  width measurements standardized to a trimer length in nm (which will be done last).  I guess it is possible to standardize the grayscale values as well.