Esempi di
applicazioni
Monitoring Food Consumption -Food
Study at the UC Davis automates balance data acquisition using
WinWedge(SoftwareWedge for Windows)
The McDonald Lab in the Department of
Nutrition at the University of California, Davis devotes its studies
to the characteristics of senescence (aging) in humans and animals.
Dr. McDonald, a Professor in the Department of Nutrition, recently
embarked on a study to evaluate the relationship among aging, food
consumption, and rapid senescence.
Dr. McDonald already knows that, in
general, rats and humans tend to eat less as they age. Moreover, Dr.
McDonald has discovered that older rats experience an increase in
the rate of weight loss and a decrease in food intake near the end
of the life span. The results of Dr. McDonald’s investigations in
rats will be used to evaluate possible mechanisms associated with
the "failure to thrive" syndrome observed in senescent humans.
The Model
To model the study, Dr. McDonald is
focusing on the eating habits in older rats. The study will take
place over a several year time period and a statistically
significant number of rats will be monitored.
The model involves tracking the
eating habits of older rats. The eating habits are monitored by
weighing both the rat’s food container and the rat itself.
Scientists in the lab weigh the food container on a Denver XL 6100
balance, and weigh the rat (including the cage) using a Pennsylvania
Scale Model 7300. The project scientists emphasized that since
constant monitoring of weights is a difficult task, the process had
to be automated.
To automate the process, the weight
readings are transmitted through the serial ports of the scales to a
personal computer running WinWedge. The rat’s weight and the food
container weight are transmitted through com port 3 and com port 4,
respectively, into the PC. WinWedge 32 captures the data readings on
serial ports com 3 and com 4 and directs the data via dynamic data
exchange (DDE) to a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet for analysis and
graphing. Excel is able to easily handle the charting and
statistical analysis of the data. The data acquisition and analysis
system runs on a Metro 486 PC with 16 megabytes of RAM running
Windows 95.
The system also utilizes several
macros that trigger WinWedge 32 to read only those weights within
certain specified parameters. It is important to record a reading
only when the rat’s weight decreases by 5 or more grams. Other
readings are to be ignored. In addition, it is necessary to record
the food container weight when it is descending in value as this
indicates that the rat has eaten. Increases in the weight of the
food container are not recorded as they may indicate that the rat is
leaning on the container. With the help of TAL’s technical support
staff, Dr. McDonald’s requirements were met with a series of Excel
macros that ignore unwanted readings and date and time stamp the
acceptable readings. Dr. McDonald expects that the results of these
investigations will offer insight into mechanisms that reflect
altered food intake in the elderly.
WinWedge Collects Data around the
Clock
Cynthia Blanton, a graduate student
in Dr. McDonald’s laboratory, noted that this project would not have
been feasible had it not been for the automation of data collection
offered by WinWedge. The weight readings would have been impossible
to track using a manual data entry method. With the use of WinWedge,
the entire process is automated and runs completely independently.
Therefore, the data collection takes place 24 hours a day, 7 days a
week with 100% accuracy.
Benefits
- Continuous data collection, 24
hours per day
- Only desired weight readings
recorded; others ignored
- Complete background data
collection allowing simultaneous use of PC
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