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What's New?
Recent Changes to SCRC Data Capture and Analysis Software
(From July 1990 to March 1991)

G. R. Detillieux

Spinal Cord Research Centre,
The University of Manitoba,
Winnipeg, Canada R3E 0J9

Analysis

• A facility has been added allowing you to exclude sections within the run from the analysis. This works for all analyses but the "Raw waveform display".
• Single-unit discrimination capabilities have been greatly enhanced.
• Instantaneous spike frequency graphs and spike interval graphs now calculate and display the frequencies or intervals with more precision. The resolution was limited in the past to the effective capture rate of the waveform. The software now interpolates between samples at the spike threshold crossing to get a more accurate measurement of the trigger time.
• The label for the zero tick on graphs is now properly labelled as "0". In the past, roundoff error would occasionally cause it to be labelled with a very small, non-zero number, in exponential notation with a large negative exponent.
• Trace averaging based on W.F. level better handles the "Active cycle phase only" option, avoiding overlap between active and inactive phases. It now also closes its files properly, so it won't fail when you re-run the analysis several times.
• When setting waveform parameters visually, the waveform is redisplayed if the "Get cursor readings" option is set, or if the "Mark frame positions on W.F." option has changed. The frame position marks no longer erase themselves when they overlap.
• The "Raw waveform display" now works properly when the "Mark frame positions on W.F." option is on and "Auto scale" is off.
• The waveform reading code introduced in the July 1990 release had a bug in its "seek" function, which is fixed in this release. Any spike-triggered waveform average or spike correlation analysis that included the last few thousand sample points in a waveform could potentially have been affected. Please repeat any such analysis using the new release of the software to ensure your previous results were not in error.
• When "Bins-save" creates an averaged run file, it asks you for the run description. The run description for the current run can be changed by selecting "Maint/Change-descr."
• The program now exits with non-zero exit status after a fatal error.

Qm

• Cursor positions are now calculated properly under "Run/Calc" when dealing with traces with a divisor greater than 1.
• Three new built-in macros have been added to allow calculations to scale results in ms and/or in mV.
• Internal error is now avoided when there are too many sweeps to fit on the display.

Cap

• The parameter setting screen (on the graphics terminal) now displays extra information about each channel, including its name, its assignment in the run, and its rate of capture.
• The capture now properly resumes after a pause in the "Check" and "Retrigger" trigger modes. It used to work only in "Ignore" mode.
• The reference level for automatic tagging is now read 4 ms after the trigger, rather than 3.5 ms.

Isopot

• A new program, "isoparms", removes much of the tedium of initially setting analysis parameters for "isoprep".
• Isoprep now properly detects and reports errors in the analysis.

Miscellaneous

• Three new run file maintenance utilities added to package: copyrun, renamerun, and appendrun. Appendrun allows you to merge two compatible runs into one.
• PostScript support in LP interfaces has been improved. It is now more reliable. The HPGL to PostScript converter now handles line types set by the "LT" command.
• The HPGL emulation (for all output devices) now properly handles the PA and PR commands without coordinates. They used to occasionally leave stray dots.
• The raster program now allows you to specify a list of frames to be shown.
• The wtsum program properly ends an operation when the user just hits RETURN after a prompt for a waveform name.

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