What's New in WinLTP 0.96?

 

Changes to WinLTP (beta version 0.96) from WinLTP (beta version 0.95b)  (September, 2008)

    

WinLTP096 is primarily a patch clamp upgrade

          Record and stimulate from two patch-clamp electrodes simultaneously
               1.  Add second AnalogOutput channel (IC1) for AnalogInput channel AD1
2. Enable Rs/Rm analysis on AD1

Better intracellular analog stimulation, now includes analog trains and ramps (loop within loop stimulation)

          Patch sealtest protocol implemented
          Improved Rs calculation
               1.  Rs single or double exponential curve fitting
2. Enable shift extrapolation back to time zero to before time zero
3. Indicate if RsPeak is clipped at +/-10.0 input voltage
    
    

Other enhancements

WinLTP works Windows Vista (with M-Series, but not Digidata 132x boards)
WinLTP Reanalysis works on Macs with Intel processors
          Improved detection
               1.  Implemented Maximum Slope measurement within a larger BegTime/EndTime range
2. RiseTime and DecayTime Low% to High% of peak fields enabled
3. Latency % of peak field enabled
Save your Spreadsheet/ AmpFile data to an Excel XLS file
          Reanalyze straight ASCII files (skip header)
Save relative sizes of panels to type protocol *.pro disk file
Save ADsweep files with/without Time Column
In AboutBox add total physical memory, available physical memory, percent of memory in use
When running M-Sseries board, check that processor is HyperThreading or multi-Core
When running Digidata board, warn if processor is < 2.8 GHz
Start in Protocol Scripting mode instead of LTP Protocol mode
    
    

Important bug fixed

          Bug fixed in Rs/Rm Measurement due to faulty use of RsRm pulse amplitude
               1.  When a protocol file is loaded, the RsRm pulse amplitude is the one used CORRECTLY for Rs and Rm calculations.
2. Therefore, if you don’t change your RsRm pulse amplitude during experiments, only the first experiment after a new protocol file has been written may have  incorrect Rs and Rm values. The rest of the experiments will be fine.
3.  However, if this RsRm pulse amplitude is changed during the experiment, the original RsRm amplitude is INCORRECTLY still used for all Rs and Rm calculations in this experiment. This will result in Rs and Rm being both incorrect and even negative for this one experiment.
     
    

Other bugs fixed

Zooming in ADsweep and Analysis graphs now works well
Y CalibrationBar in EnhancedMetafile is now of reasonable length (one NumberLabeled GridLine).
          FilesToReanalyze - Filename template now sticks from one analysis to another
DecayTimes were in minus msecs, now they are in plus msecs
Rapidly resizing the Protocol/Detection panel and the Mainpg panel no longer causes the program to hangup

The video related bug with Windows XP no longer occurs (before WinLTP could hang up during start-up if the XP font size was Large or Extra Large rather than Normal).

     
    

Unfixable Bug Found

         

ASUS motherboards do not work with National Instruments M-Series boards

 

 

Changes to WinLTP (beta version 0.95b) from WinLTP (beta version 0.95)  (September, 2007)

   

This is basically a time limit extension version.

 
   

One enhancement

         

WinLTP095b will now work with National Instruments M-Series boards using the PCIexpress bus.

 

 

Changes to WinLTP (beta version 0.95) from WinLTP (beta version 0.94)  (February, 2007)

   

LTP Protocol enhancements (no scripting is involved)

         

Bug Fixed:  When Single and Repeat PulseSweeps are evoked during an AvgLoop, they will not be run during the AvgLoop, but only after it is finished.

For LTD stimulation with averaging (or any AvgLoop within a Loop), now print the current number of sweeps evoked and total number of sweeps to be evoked in the RunLine.

After an evoked FastRepeat LTD or ThetaBurst stimulation, an extra Delay period can be added to separate this stimulation from the subsequent normal repeating sweep stimulation.

 
   

Protocol Scripting enhancements

         

An evoked single or repeat sweep stimulation can occur at beginning of a Delay statement.  This allows one to precisely place when an evoked sweep will occur during a delay  period.

Run Once[x] checkbox so that you do not need to uncheck a [ ]Run statement when you want to run the the code within the Run construct only once

Run / ElseRun construct to quickly change between one or the other of two stimulations in Run statements

 
   

Additional Enhancements

          Implement Enable Single & FastRepeat CheckBoxes so that only the buttons for the evoked Single or Repeat stimulations you want will be enabled
 
   

The WinLTP Manual has been essentially completed

          The Reanalysis chapter has been completed
     
    

Bugs fixed

         

Evoking Single or Repeat Pulse Sweeps (P0sweep or P1sweep) can no longer occur in an AvgLoop

              

1. 

In the previous versions of WinLTP from WinLTP090 to WinLTP094, this was because in an Averaging Loop the P0sweeps and the P1sweeps are being averaged by adding to an array in each pulse sweep that sums all the sweeps and then is divided by the number of loops.  If Single or Repeat P0 or P1 sweeps are evoked, this adds to the sum array but does not change the number of loops – hence the average will be wrong!
2. However, evoking Single or Repeat T0 or T1 sweeps in an Averaging Loop is fine because these do not have a sum array and averaging is never done on them.  And if you are doing scripting, only one P0sweep and only one P1sweep is allowed in an Averaging Loop – e.g. this possible bug has been prohibited in scripting..
3.

This bug was fixed by changing WinLTP so that when Single and Repeat PulseSweeps are evoked during an AvgLoop, they will not be run during the AvgLoop, but only after it is finished

          Blocked inserting an AvgLoop within an AvgLoop (since it doesn't make sense to do so)

Fixed an 'Access Violation in module Tee6c6.bpl’ error in the Reanalysis program that occurred when averaging trains with analyzing all pulses in the train

 

 

Changes to WinLTP (beta version 0.94) from WinLTP (beta version 0.93)  (Primarily a debug version)  (October, 2006)

   

This version is primarily a bug fix version due to the change in calculating Rm.

  
   

Important bug fixed

         

Corrected Rm cell input resistance measurement bug

              

In the previous versions of WinLTP (WinLTP090 to WinLTP093), the cell input resistance Rm was incorrectly calculated as

          Rm = VPulse / ISteadyState 

 and is now correctly calculated in WinLTP094 and later as

          Rm = VPulse / ISteadyState - Rs

Because Rs is usually much less than Rm,  Rm ~ Vpulse / Isteadstate  still is roughly true, but since Rs values are typically 5% to 10% of Rm values, previous Rm values (from WinLTP090 to WinLTP093) are roughly 5% to 10% too high.  Since Rm = Vpulse / Isteadystate - Rs  is the theoretically correct function, it is now used in the Rm calculation when Rs is being measured.

  
   

Fixed M-Seres board bug where input signals "wrap around" when <-10V or >+10V

          Input signals are now correctly pinned at -10V or +10V.
  
   

Changed the Rm measurement from  50%->90%  to  70%->90% of the RsRm test pulse duration

         

I found that sometimes the voltage had not settled to steady state by 50% of the pulse duration and therefore increased it to 70% in hopes of obtaining more accurate Rm measurements.

  
   

Added an 's' after the Sweep and Delay Period fields for clarity, to denote their measurements in seconds

         

For example, changed  [ ]P0sweep 20  and  [ ]Delay 10  to  [ ]P0sweep 20s  and  [ ]Delay 10s.

 

 

Changes to WinLTP (beta version 0.93) from WinLTP (beta version 0.92)  (August, 2006)

    WinLTP now supports the National Instruments M-Series boards for the PCI bus
          Supported M-Series boards include the PCI-6221, PCI-6229, PCI-6251 and PCI-6259
M-Series boards for the USB bus are currently not yet supported
 
    Decrease in response time delay to keyboard input for M-Series PCI boards
          The response time delay to keyboard input has decreased from 5.0 sec for Axon Digidata 132x boards to 0.5 sec for M-Series PCI boards

 

 

Changes to WinLTP (beta version 0.92) from WinLTP (beta version 0.91)  (a debug version)  (March, 2006)

     This is a last minute debug version before I begin installing the National Instruments M-Series boards.

     Fixed PowerOn code bug - there is no longer any 5v digital output
          Now when the Digidata 1320A/1322A is tuned on, all digital and and analog outputs go to 0 volts
If somehow the Power-On data changes, WinLTP will recognize this and require recalibration of the Digidata 1320A/1322A
    
     CalcGraph MinTime values now snap to 1 min increments
          Previously, CalcGraph MinTime values snapped to values 1/10the the plot duration.  If the MinTime was say set to 5 min, and the plot duration was 300 minutes, then clicking on the CalcGraph with the mouse could cause the MinTime to snap back to 0 min, which was usually not desired.  This no longer happens.
    
     When the Reanalysis dialog box is reopened, the previous last FilenameTemplate used is now shown
          This has been reworked and now hopefully works correctly
    
     We have apparently solved the problems with the Digidata 1320A
          The problem with getting certain (probably older) Digidata 1320As to install, calibrate and work properly  is at least partly due to using old AxoScope dll files.  If you are having problems, upgrade your AxoScope to the lastest version (and copy over the dll files to the \ WinLTP folder) by freely downloading AxoScope from Molecular Devices at:
              

www.moleculardevices.com/pages/instruments/cn_axoscope_update.html

 

 

Changes to WinLTP (beta version 0.91) from WinLTP (beta version 0.90)  (Primarily a debug version)  (February, 2006)

     Improved Reanalysis program
         

Now ADsweep and Calc graphs properly clear when reanalyzing at high speed with no delay between files loaded (e.g. if the Reanalysis Period = 0 sec)

    
     When the Reanalysis dialog box is reopened, the previous last FilenameTemplate used is now shown
When the Reanalysis dialog box is reopened, the previous last FilenameTemplate (e.g. *.P1) and FilesOfType (Pulse Files (*.P?)) are now shown.
         

In other words, you don’t have to retype! the FilenameTemplate or FilesOfType each time you reanalyze!

    
     The improved ability to run continuous sweeps (with no delay between them)
         

In WinLTP090 this was a Limitation as described below as:

               “Probably the most computer intensive task that WinLTP has to face is repeat sweep stimulation with no delay in-between.  For now, a 3.2GHz Pentium 4 processor and a fast video graphics card has difficulty saving contiguous sweeps longer than 2 seconds.  (This is because, for now, sweeps are saved after, rather than during, acquisition.)  Contiguous sweeps of down to 0.1 sec duration, however, can be saved."
          This Limitation has now been largely removed
               Now a 3.2GHz Pentium 4 computer with a fast video graphics card can run and save contiguous sweeps of 100 seconds
         

To remove this Limitation these changes were made:

1.  ContAcq graphs now always correctly clear
2. ADsweeps and Analysis Graphs now always correctly plot
3. The time to next sweep is now correctly printed on the RunLine
               4.  Tabs, Dialogs, Fields and StimGraphs are now quickly updated
    
   

Save ADsweep Graph as a Windows Enhanced Metafile

         

This allows ADsweep graphs to be directly imported into plotting programs.  Just double click (using the left mouse button) on the dark gray area containing the axis values surrounding the ADsweep data window to bring up the metafile dialog box (see Section 9.6 of the WinLTP Getting Started manual).

    
     CalcLines, Brackets, Crosses and Arrows are now plotted on ADsweep graphs
         

These now more clearly show where

1.  Duration is marked by Vertical Lines and Left/Right Arrows
2. PSamp is marked by Up/Down Arrows and Left/Right Brackets
3. PkAmp is marked by Up/Down Arrows
4. Coastline is marked by Left/Right Brackets
               5.  RiseTime & DecayTime are marked by Crosses
    
     Added ElectrodeConnections dialog box
          This is opened from the Help menu, and shows where the stimulus isolation units and amplifiers are connected to the data acquisition board.

 

 

Changes to the beta version of WinLTP (version 0.90) from  the DOS LTP Program (version 2.4) (August, 2005)

     Multitasking
         

LTP Program capability (repeat sweep stimulation, acquisition and analysis) maintained and advanced

          Tape recorder (Continuous Acquisition of 2 AD channels down to 25 usec sample intervals, saved to a gap-free Axon Binary File)
          Capture Spontaneous Events and save to disk (Online analysis not implemented yet)
    
     Dynamic Script Programming for writing complex protocols.  No programming required for LTP protocols.
 

Repetitive sweeps sampling interval now down to 25 usec

 
    

Fast Repeat (LTD) Sweep Stimulation with no time between sweeps

      
     Patch clamp stimulation now in mV
    
     Patch Electrode Series Resistance (Rs) and Cell Resistance (Rm) now measured in Mohms
More accurate Patch Electrode Series Resistance (Rs) (using lower 50 or 25 usec sample intervals)
    
    

Runs in Windows 2000 and XP

 


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