Multichannel Systems HiClamp Manual - Manual (Page 45)

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6 Data Analysis
As the HiClamp is intended to perform experiments in an unattended manner this means that
data captured by the robot should be self containing and easily identifiable. Typical experiments
will run for hours and often during day or night. Moreover, data concerning a particular set of
experiments may be captured in a single day or on several days and the data analysis software
must allow flexible analysis to be performed and regrouping of data coming from different
experiments.
Data analysis is performed using two complementary program called DataMining and
DataMerger. DataMining was designed for the analysis of a single experiment and to store
results in a form that is compatible for multiple analysis. DataMerger was designed to combine
experiments and prepare results for report presentation.
Before examining in more details DataMining and DataMerger programs it is, however,
of value to examine the data files created by HiClamp.
6.1 Data File Organization
A rapid look at the disk organization reveals that HiClamp creates folders that are organized
by year, month and day of experiment. Each HiClamp sets its own folders according to its
reference number set in the preference. HiClamp files include *.mat, *.seq, *.lab and *.vic.
Note: Do not erase any of these files otherwise data will be corrupted and reading will
be disrupted.
A given folder might contain one or more *.mat and *.seq files, each of them corresponding
to the activation of a play sequence. The *.mat contains the program sequence that was played
whereas the *.seq contains all the sequence of events that have been captured during the
particular experiment. The *.lab stores the laboratory notebook. Note that for laboratory safety,
this sequence is encoded and cannot be read into a text processor. The *.vic sequence stores all
the data that have been captured. Data are stored in a random access manner with each of the
data epoch having independent record length. Critical parameters such as voltage steps, setting
of the amplifier etc. are stored for each record and can be read during analysis.