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General Information
LabAnalyst
X is a physiology-oriented but general-purpose data reduction and analysis program for
Macintosh computers. It contains many display, transformation, and manipulation
procedures, along with specialized operations for working with respirometry
data. LabAnalyst X works best
with a color screen (but if forced, will function with older gray-scale and monochrome
monitors). Minimum screen resolution is 640 by 480 pixels, but the
number of channels is limited to 14 unless at least 600 vertical pixels
are available. It's much happier with a modern system with 1024 X 768 resolution or better. The program expects a PowerPC processor, but works very well under the 'Rosetta' emulator on Intel Macs.
Features:
- Up to 24 channels of data, each containing up to two million samples.
- Compatible with most printers and can produce both graphics output
and text printouts of results.
- Data manipulations include integration, differentiation, nearest-neighbor
smoothing, lag correction, spike and reference removal, baseline correction, gas exchange
calculations, and a variety of mathematical transformations and conversions.
- Analyses include running averages and averaged pairs differences, descriptive
statistics (mean, range, SD, SE), minimum and maximum values averaged over
selected time intervals, simple waveform analysis, FFT, slope vs.
time, interchannel regressions, graphical time series, asymptotes, polynomial
fitting, and time, event, and selective integration.
These instructions begin with basic suggestions for getting started with
the program. Subsequently, entries are arranged according to the LabAnalyst X menus: FILE,
EDIT, (standard operations and respirometry), ANALYZE,
VIEW, SCRIPTS,
and SPECIAL. Descriptions
of the main Warthog Systems File Formats
are also available.
Numerical Resolution, data types, file
formats
LabAnalyst X stores numbers in a
floating-point format with roughly 8-10-digit precision (it also reads
BCD files generated by older Warthog software). Floating-point math
is much faster than BCD math, but somewhat less accurate. However,
this is a minor limitation that should pose few problems to the average
user, especially because the accuracy of most data is considerably less
than can be represented in even 6 decimal digits. A 16-bit analog-to-digital
converter working optimally can resolve one part in 65,535, for example -- five decimal digits.
Most LabAnalyst X operations are performed
at higher internal precision to maintain accuracy.
LabAnalyst X is designed to work transparently
with files generated by the LabHelper
and LabHelper X data-acquisition packages. LabAnalyst
X will also load and save most Sable
Systems (SSCF) data files, and will
work with nearly any data set that can be stored in ASCII (text) format in a spreadsheet,
provided that:
- The data are numeric
- The data are stored in ASCII (text) format.
- Variables are separated by tabs or commas.
- There is a carriage return at the end of each row of data
- The dimensions of the data do not exceed 32 columns (from which you must select a maximum of 24 variables).
Requirements. . .
LabAnalyst X needs considerably
more than 100 Mb if you want to use the maximum file size of 2 million cases.
When running in Classic or OS 8/9, the program expects the following outline (scaleable)
fonts, and may produce odd-looking or misplaced text if they are not available:
Chicago or Charcoal (system default), Helvetica, Geneva, Symbol, Times,
New York, Monaco.
Credits. . . .
LabAnalyst
X was written in FutureBasic
(©Staz Software, Inc.; http://www.stazsoftware.com)
by Mark
Chappell (a.k.a. 'Warthog Systems', with apologies
to Sable Systems and especially to Gilbert
Shelton) with facilities provided by the University of California, Riverside.
No warranty of any kind is offered or implied. LabAnalyst
X is NOT a commercial product and may not be sold or copied for
commercial purposes. If you have questions you may contact me at the
Biology Department, U.C. Riverside, Riverside, CA 92521. My
electronic mail address is: chappell@ucr.edu
For no particular reason, LabAnalyst plays a bird song at start-up.
This is the contact call of the Eastern
Whipbird (Psophodes olivaceus), a secretive species that
lives in dense undergrowth in the temperate and tropical rainforests of
eastern Australia. Males (shown here) and females sing a duet; the
female answers the male's 'whipcrack' with a softer two-note whistle (or
maybe it's the reverse?).
Photo by C. & D. Firth, Wet Tropics Rainforest Life |
go to the Warthog Systems page
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to Mark Chappell's page
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