Hi to all the mini analysis program users! This newsletter informs the users of Mini Analysis Program about the updates and changes in the program. The recently released version 3.0 continues to gain enthusiastic support from all of the users who had a chance to try this version. If you haven't tried it yet, please check it out at http://Jaejin.com. 1. Double Peak Detection 2. Group Analysis and Curve Fitting improvements 3. Fixed the problem of ascii save 4. Fixed: overestimated Risetime 5. How to read pClamp 5 and pClamp6 files 6. Tips on how to optimize the analysis parameters 7. HELP!! Pulse data file format 8. User friendly, customizable plots 9. Export to origin 1. Double Peak Detection Double peak detection is reality now! When one peak is riding on a previous peak, you were out of luck. But now with the new double peak detection algorithm, the program will detect and adjust the amplitude and risetime accordingly. Detailed algorithm will be available in the help file update. The shortcut key for double peak detection is ALT+left mouse button. You can also scan through the already detected peaks and detect double peaks automatically by running "Scan and Detect Double Peak" command under File menu. 2. Group Analysis and Curve Fitting improvements The group analysis enhanced its looks and features. If you have many events in a group and try to plot in the group analysis window, it would take too long. This was because the program would try to plot every single point in a trace. Now it has an option of plotting every 2, 5, 10 ... points. So the display got much faster. You can also align the peaks not only by location of the peak, but also by risetime. This gives much better alignment. In the curve fitting, it takes much less time to fit since you have an option of displaying the fitted curve or not. Finally, you can save all the settings, so that you don't have to set them again. 3. Fixed the problem of ascii save Several investigators complained about the bug in Ascii Save function under Events menu. Now, the program does not append the event data to the previous save. 4. Fixed: overestimated Risetime Previously risetime calculations sometime gave a longer risetime than it should be, which could be visually identifiable. Now, the fine tuned algorithm takes exact point, whose fraction over amplitude goes under 5%. This helps in aligning peaks in the group analysis and curve fitting as well as better estimation of the true risetime. 5. How to read pClamp 5 and pClamp6 files Many people asked about reading pCalmp5 files from the Mini Analysis Program. The solution turned out to be quite simple. You open pCalmp5 files from Clampfit 6 and export as binary. The resulting binary file is in abf file format and can be read from the Mini Analysis Program. 6. Tips on how to optimize the analysis parameters Many people initially struggle with optimizing the analysis parameters. Here are some tips. -Make sure the location of the green x (baseline), yellow dot (risetime), red x (peak), and purple dot (decaytime) are all in order, respectively. -Make sure green x(baseline) does not fall on the rising phase of a peak. If this happens, increase the "time before a peak for baseline" parameter. -Use a useful number for "Fraction of a peak to find a decay time" parameter, in order to better estimate the decay tau. For example, fraction of 0.6 gives an approximation of half of the decay tau. Fraction of 0.368 gives an approximation of the decay tau. 7. HELP!! Pulse data file format Many Mac users asked if the program can work in Mac OS. The answer is no, but at least it should be able to read data files that are generated by Mac data acquisition programs. Once popular Mac program is Pulse. Pulse data files are pretty complicated but Igor binary files are not. So, we are dedicated to expand the capability to Igor binary files. But initial attempts proved to be quite difficult due to the way Mac accesses memory. If anyone has any experience with this matter, please e-mail us and help us develop a simple conversion program that can convert Igor binary to ABF files. 8. User friendly, customizable plots Right now the plots that the program generates are pretty much inert. We are planning to add user definable features of the plots. 9. Export to origin Origin uses some weird way of copying data. Right now, data that are copied by Mini Analysis Program can be pasted from Excel and Sigma Plot with no problem. But from Origin, the data get lost. We will investigate this further. *****Mini Analysis Program is a product of joint effort by all the users. If you have any suggestions, please let us know, so that we can incorporate your ideas.****** For more information, visit our website at http://Jaejin.com If you want to receive the upgrade, please send mailto://Upgrade@Jaejin.com. If you wish to be removed from this newsletter list please mailto://News@Jaejin.com. Jaejin Software 107 Irving Street Leonia, NJ 07605 phone: 201-592-7034 http://Jaejin.com ftp://ftp.jaejin.com mailto://Webmaster@Jaejin.com