Manual

UltraScan File Format Information:

UltraScan utilizes a number of file naming conventions and file formats in order to achieve efficient and fast data access. This is crucial, especially for datasets with many scans, where the loading of experimental data can take a very long time if the file structure is not implemented properly. This requires for most files to be stored in a binary file format. For cases where ASCII files are necessary for ease of porting data informations from one architecture to another, a conversion routine exists that allows export of data files to a number of different formats.

Following is a listing of all file formats and file names used in UltraScan:

  1. Raw Experimental Files

  2. Edited Experimental Files

  3. Exported Experimental Files

  4. Experimental Analysis Result Files

    Sedimentation Velocity:

    Sedimentation Equilibrium:

  5. Global Extinction Profile Fitting

  6. Data Simulations

    Finite Element Simulations:

    Self-association Equilibrium:

  1. Raw experimental data files:
    For input data files, UltraScan accepts all ASCII datafiles generated by the Beckman data acquisition software for both interference and absorbance optical data. If the data was acquired with the Beckman Data Acquisition program of older vintage (version < 3.0), then you can use the MS-DOS XL-A filename conversion utility to convert the data to the newer format.
  2. Edited experimental data files:
    After editing, a single file will contain the details and diagnostics of the run. This file is in binary format and has the following C/C++ data structure:

    Structure for experimental data diagnostics:: 

    struct runinfo
{
	QString data_dir;		// path to data directory
	QString run_id;			// Run identification
	QString cell_id[8];		// descriptive string for cell contents
	int wavelength_count[8];	// how many wavelengths have been measured for each cell
	int wavelength[8][3];		// up to 3 wavelengths per cell
	int scans[8][3];		// how many scans are there for each lambda in each cell?
	float avg_temperature;		// average temperature of the run
	int temperature_check;		// does the temperature vary over the run more than allowed by tolerance?
	float time_correction;		// time correction for rotor acceleration period
	float duration;			// length of the run
	int total_scans;		// how many scans are there total in the Run?
	float ***temperature;		// temperature of each scan
	float ***time;			// time stamp of each scan
	float ***omega_s_t;		// omega-square-t of each scan
	float ***plateau;		// plateau value of each scan
	uint ***rpm;			// Rotor speed in rotation per minute	
	float meniscus[8];		// meniscus for each cell
	float baseline[8][3];		// baseline of each data set
	float range_right[8][3][3];	// radius where the data starts (third dimension for 6-channel equilibrium cells)
	float range_left[8][3][3];	// radius where the data stops
	float delta_r;			// radial datapoint density (increment)
	int centerpiece[8];		// centerpiece properties
					// 1. Digit = 0: 2 channels
					// 1. Digit = 1: 6 channels
					// 2. Digit = 0: Epon/Charcoal
					// 2. Digit = 1: Aluminum
					// 3. Digit = 0: Conventional
					// 3. Digit = 1: Synthetic
					// Example 1: 100: 6 channel, Epon, Conventional
					// Example 2: 1: 2 channel, Epon, Synthetic
	int rotor;			// AN-60 = 1, AN-50 = 0
};

    The name for this file will always be <run_id>.us.v for velocity experiments and <run_id>.us.e for equilibrium experiments, where <run_id> is a variable that describes the unique run identification given to the run by the user during editing.

    The edited data for each dataset is written to a binary file. Each dataset consists out of all scans belonging to a single cell and a single wavelength. The naming convention for the datafiles is as follows:

    <run_id>.<exp>.<cell><wavelength><channel>

    where:

  3. Exported Experimental Data:
    After experimental data has been edited (i.e., after elimination of exterior (noisy) data regions without information, editing spikes and scratches, eliminating scans, etc.), the data can be re-exported into an ASCII format for import into third-party spreadsheet programs. Each exported dataset will contain the X/Y pairs for absorbance or fringe data of the entire experiment, including any added smoothing or cropping for each scan. The file naming convention is as follows:

    <run_id>.<cell><wavelength><channel> (channel information only for equilibrium experiments)

    Exported ASCII data will be saved into the "Results" directory.

    The file structure is as follows:

    Column 1 Column 2 Column i
    Radius Position Absorbance
    Scan 1    		 Absorbance
    Scan i-1

  4. Experimental Analysis Result Files:
    In order to facilitate export of experimental data results from UltraScan into third-party plotting software and spreadsheets, all analysis modules of UltraScan produce ASCII data files for all pertinent results. The following section identifies the format and naming convention used in these files. All result files are saved in the result directory (see: UltraScan Configuration).

    <run_id>.<method>.<cell><wavelength><channel>

    where:

  5. Global Extinction Profile Fitting:

    • [run_id].extinction.dat:

      Column 1 Column 2
      Wavelength Extinction Value

    • [run_id].extinction.res: Verbose fitting results

  6. Data Simulations
    (Note: The Default location for all simulation data files is the directory where UltraScan was started. For more information on file locations please see the UltraScan Configuration help file)

    Finite Element Simulations:

    Self-Association Equilibrium:

www contact: Borries Demeler

This document is part of the UltraScan Software Documentation distribution.
Copyright © notice

The latest version of this document can always be found at:

    http://www.ultrascan.uthscsa.edu

Last modified on January 12, 2003.