Lee Reynolds' presentation on Development of a data acquisition system for monitoring the biological stress response of rats in a thermal gradient

1. Development of a data acquisition system for monitoring the biological stress response of rats in a thermal gradient Lee Reynolds Integrated Science and Technology Mentor: Dr. Keith Holland Dr. Justin Brown PhD

2. Research On the Rats Autonomic Nervous System to Hypoxic Stress Linked to SIDS (Sudden Infant Death Syndrome) They hypothesize that the RaPa, and likely the 5HT1A receptor, mediate the thermoregulatory responses to hypoxic stress which would be confirmed by an alteration of the normal hypothermic response to hypoxic stress Examples of Hypoxic Stress: less oxygen, more nitrogen

3. Actual Rat Thermoregulatory responses to hypoxic stress were measured in male Sprague-Dawley rats using radiotelemetry Rats were instrumented with microinjection cannulas targeting the RaPa which allowed pharmacologic alterations in neurotransmission Changes in core temperature (Tc) and selected ambient temperature (STa) during hypoxic stress were observed in rats

4. 18 Temperature Thermocouples 18 Photoreceptors Cold Water Bath & Oxygen and Nitrogen Tank

5. Temperature Gradient

6. The Testing Time Scale: 30 minutes – 1 hour for acclimation 30 minute baseline test 15 minutes – 36+ hour stress response tests Selected Ambient Temperature: The temperature at the exact position of the rat during any given time

7. The OLD System Problems Included: -Limited Lifetime -Keyboard Failure -Not User Friendly -Sometimes would not boot up - Raw Data would have to be processed -Time consuming data manipulation Raw data must be processed No raw data manipulation If a position sensor was not blocked or if multiple were blocked, the data processing program would not work Required time consuming manual removal of these data samples

8. Thermocouples Problems With Old Thermocouples: - Poor Connection - Unorganized and messy - Sometimes would take a whole day to replace just one

9. New Gradient System More Efficient New “modular” data acquisition system – room for expansion and modification in the future Space saver Looks cooler

10. “Under the Hood”

12. LabVIEW No longer need to process the raw data – once the test is finished, the relevant data is already summarized at appropriate time intervals Automatically recognize if multiple photoreceptors are tripped and adjust readings accordingly (data analysis does not fail) Automatically recognize and alert user to thermocouple and/or photoreceptor failures/errors

14. New System Without need for post processing, data manipulation time is eliminated, allowing for tests to be run in closer succession. More “user friendly” identification of potential data errors. Addition of standard deviation and summary statistics for important parameters to improve result accuracy Can be run continuously, even when data is not being stored, to monitor conditions – no need to run and analyze additional baseline tests.

15. “Things are working unbelievably well so far. We have been collecting data and the lab students will start to analyze it shortly. I have looked at it and it seems to be organized perfectly. This system will be a much quicker, and more reliable, way to get our data. Plus, we can easily replace it if the computer system fails using the back up files we made” – Dr. Brown

16. Thank You Dr. Keith Holland Dr. Robert Prins Dr. Justin Brown Dr. Chris Hughes JMU REU Program DOD-ASSURE/NSF-REU grant # DMR-0851367