| الملخص: |
Many traditional arenas for examining animal behavior are beginning to incorporate modern technology into their experimental paradigms. The use of modern technology creates data management issues from the use of new equipment. We present a software solution to the data management for a recently developed experimental paradigm that outfits visual burrow systems (VBS) and single-housing rat cages with RFID scanners and food cup scales generating data continuously for extended periods of time (up to 2 weeks). The end goal of this set-up is to collect data frequently enough so that we can adequately examine animal meal patterns during normal activity, diet changes, and the development of stress induced obesity. The software is designed to maximize data capture to levels at capacity with the technology by making the data more accessible to users. This is accomplished by data compression, providing simplifying user interfaces and result formatting within the framework of familiar programs, and producing high resolution measures while maintaining the flexibility of user-defined meal definitions. The resulting data reveals features of meal patterns that were previously unresolved at lower recording rates. Furthermore, the complete datasets include features of meal patterns that have not been studied before, particularly quantity and duration of intra-meal intervals. |
