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Edit UltraScan Data

All experimental data aquired with the analytical ultracentrifuge require pre-processing to create an edit profile which is necessary for any data to be successfully analyzed with various analysis methods. UltraScan assists you in this process by handling most essential diagnostics and editing steps automatically, but permits you to intervene where necessary. A user can choose to create multiple edit profiles for a particular data set, for example, to explore the effect of various editing steps on the analysis results. For example, a user may wish to exclude either early or late scans to track time dependent changes in the sample. Each profile will receive a unique name based on the time at which the editing process was conducted. For data analysis, any associated edit profile may be selected at run time to provide a custom data selection.

Note: When editing, the plot may be zoomed by selecting the Zoom button on the graph and dragging the mouse over the area desired. This operation may be repeated as needed. Each right mouse click will un-zoom one level. Clicking on the Zoom button again at any zoom level will restore the un-zoomed graph.

When zoomed, the graph may be panned by pressing the center mouse button (usually the scroll wheel) and dragging.

Edit data by following these steps:

1. Step 1: Load data from the database or a local data directory that contains the UltraScan 3 data files previously converted from the Beckman raw data. Load choices are made in a Load Data Dialog.
2. Step 2: Select the Cell / Channel / Wavelength triple to be edited.
3. Step 3: Specify the meniscus of the data by holding down the Control key and using the left mouse button. The meniscus value may be manually adjusted with the keyboard.
4. Step 4: If the data were collected with the interference detector, specify the left and right edges of the air gap area of the data.
5. Step 5: Specify the left and right edges of the data to be analyzed. Please note: Do not pick the left data edge too close to the meniscus. During meniscus fitting, the evaluated meniscus positions may reach inside of the data range and violate the boundary conditions of the finite element solution. This will cause the meniscus fit to fail.
6. Step 6: Specify the location of the scan plateau. This is the radial position where most scans have a stable plateau, but the selected position should not reach into the back-diffusion region. The most appropriate point tends to be close to the right edge of the data range, but not so far to the right that it extends into the region where the concentration of the later scans curves upward at the bottom of the cell due to back-diffusion.
7. Step 7: Make any other optional adjustments to the data that are necesary and save the edit profile. When saving, a pop-up message is presented asking for an edit ID. The default for this ID is the current date and time in the form of YYMMddhhmm (Year / Month / Day / Hour / Minute), but this default can be supplemented with a suffix of your own choice.

The above process may be reset to any point by pressing the appropriate button at the associated specification entry.

Repeat the above process for each triple (Cell / Channel / Wavelength combination) in the data set.

Functions:

• Run Info: This text box displays run information for the currently selected run.
• Select Investigator This button brings up a window that allows selecting the current investigator for input from the database.
• Database Check to specify data input from the database.
• Local Disk Check to specify data input from local disk.
• Load Data Click here and, in the resulting Load Data Dialog, select raw data set(s) to load for editing.
• Run Details: This button brings up a child window that describes additional information associated with the data. The data description may be updated in this window.
• Cell / Channel / Wavelength Select the triple for which to perform editing.
• Threshold for Scan Gaps: This spin button controls the check for consecutive interpolated data. If more than the specified number of consecutive points on a scan have been interpolated, a warning is displayed when the data is loaded. When editing wavelength data, this control specifies the gap in wavelengths.
• Scan Controls: These controls allow setting the focus for excluding scans or scan ranges.
• Scan Focus from: Set the counter to the lower bound of scans to exclude.
• Scan Focus to: Set the counter to the upper bound of scans to exclude.
• Exclude Scan Range Exclude the scans indicated by the two preceding scan bounding counters.
• Exclusion Profile This button displays a window where additional options for scan exclusion are available. Here it is possible to save only every 2nd, 3rd or nth scan.
• Edit Single Scan This button displays a window where individual points may be changed by a Control-Left_Click-Drag operation.
• Include All Clicking this button undoes any prior exclusion operations.
• Specify Meniscus This button enables the edit range selection step to be set to specify the meniscus via Ctrl-Click on the meniscus position. The radius value of the selected point is displayed in the text box to the right of the button.
• Specify Data Range This button enables the edit range selection step to be set to specify the data range via Ctrl-Click's on the start and end data positions. The radius values of the selected points are displayed in the text box to the right of the button.
• Specify Plateau This button enables the edit range selection step to be set to specify the plateau via Ctrl-Click on the plateau position. The radius value of the selected point is displayed in the text box to the right of the button.
• Baseline: The text box displays the radius value and average OD value of a baseline automatically computed after the plateau is chosen.
• OD Limit: Select an upper limit on OD values in the data above which data is excluded from 2-Dimensional Spectrum Analysis computations.
• Determine RI Noise This button analyzes all scans to determine any radial invariant noise. It brings up a window that shows polynomial coefficients for a best fit of the scan integral. Residuals to this integral represent radially invariant noise. Subtracting the residual values from each datapoint in a scan will correct radially invariant noise. It is important that the loss of mass in the data as a function of time is properly matched to an appropriate polynomial, so select a polynomial degree that provides the best overall fit to all integral values.
• Subtract Noise This button removes the calculated noise from the current data set.
• Invert Sign This button inverts the measured data.
• Remove Spikes This button determines if data readings are beyond acceptable limits and adjusts outlying data points to an interpolated value.
• Apply Prior Edits This button requests the user to specify a saved set of edit operations and applies them to the current data.
• Undo Noise and Spikes This button removes any corrections made to the data by noise or spike calculations.
• Mark Data as Floating This button sets a flag to mark the data as floating.
• Save Current Edit Profile This button initiates a save of the edited data to local file(s) and/or database.
• Reset This button removes all data and sets the program to a known starting point.
• Help Display this help.
• Close Close the editing session.

Multi-WaveLength (MWL) Controls

If the raw data loaded contains multiple wavelengths (more than two), the form of the main window changes to allow an editing sequence oriented towards cell / channel selection and individual wavelength selection ( MultiWavelength Edit ).

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