[Babase] New kind of Psion sample

Susan Alberts babase@www.eco.princeton.edu
Sat, 9 Oct 2004 08:50:01 +0300


Karl,

We haven't yet told you that we have just introduced a new kind of 
sample with the psion. This sampling will be of short duration (ie we 
started it in Sept and should be finished in Oct), but Daphne will 
have to deal with it soon.

One question that Jeanne and I have not discussed is whether we want 
these data incorporated into the database. Jeanne, please give your 
input on this as you will be the primary user of the samples.

I think that we could do it either way -- Daphne could manually pull 
them all out of the Psion samples before she inputs the Psion points 
into babase. Or we could ask you to write a conversion program that 
pulls out this sample type as a separate set of files.

These are not point samples and so they will not fit into the 
"points" scheme you described in the previous email.

The samples have all the same header information as the current 
samples, but the sample type is different, "GLA" (for "glance 
sample"). The samples are collected in order to measure differences 
among individuals in the rate at which they glance up from their 
activity (interupt their activity to monitor the environment) and the 
rate at which they scratch themselves. Both of these things are 
thought to be measures of "nervousness".

The contents of the sample are single letter entries, either G or S. 
So a sample looks like this:

Header (all information same as
G <time>
S <time>
G <time>
G <time>
G <time>
G <time>
G <time>
S <time>
S <time>
G <time>
G <time>
End

Thoughts anyone?

Susan
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Susan Alberts, Department of Biology, Duke University, Box 90338, 
Durham NC 27708
919-660-7272 (phone), 919-660-7293 (FAX)