Nest-o-Patch Files

Nest-o-Patch ver 1.1 beta 1.
Long awaited support for PatchMaster is added!

This is an early beta version, provided mainly for testing purposes. If you download and use it, please, report
bugs and feature requests at the official page: http://sourceforge.net/p/nestopatch/tickets/ 


What's new.
1. Support for the data, recorded with most current HEKA software - PatchMaster.
2. As a consequence of (1), a trace for loading may be selected (since PatchMaster supports up to 16 traces). 
If some of the selected series do not contain selected trace, a warning is issues and a trace is loaded, 
skipping these series. 
3. Possibility to make time scale relative to a group, series or a sweep. In the latter case a recording is displayed
with "paralleled" sweeps (like in PatchMaster or Pulse themselves).
4. Possibility to calculate an average current on an interval. If no levels specified, relative to "0", otherwise relative to level "0". If a recording is shown with "parallel" view of groups, series or sweeps, it is calculated for each of them.

1. Program description

This program was designed mainly for “preconditioning” and analysis of single channel properties in patch-clamp recordings. Single channel conductance, kinetics, NPo and open probability may be estimated. The program focused mainly on the analysis of level dwellings distribution in a recording with several channels and estimate of the number of channels (N) and open probability (Po). Analysis of hidden Markov models is planned in the future versions.
However, the program may be useful in various applications, for example, analysis of whole-cell mode recordings, or of any other data, when limited editing and measurements in a 2-dimentional (for example time-current) wave are required. The program itself does not make any assumptions about units of the recordings, it deals only with X-values and Y-values.
Directly supports files, created by Pulse and PatchMaster software (HEKA Elektronik Dr. Schulze GmbH) and opens ASCII files.

2. Package content
NSTPatch: main program
ReadPulse: readpulse library (needed for reading of Pulse files).
ReadPMaster: readpmaster library (needed for reading of PatchMaster files).
NstPatchGuide.pdf - Nest-o-Patch manual (however, still describing ver. 1.01)
readme_1_1b1.txt - this text.

For demonstration and testing purposes file pulse_sample.rar which contains a sample recording made with a Pulse program 
may be downloaded separately from the official site of Nest-o-Patch: https://sourceforge.net/projects/nestopatch
User's guide NSTPatchGuide.pdf is also available there.

3. System requirements.

Operating systems supported: 
Windows XP or higher. 
Linux with "Wine" windows simulator.

Hardware: 3 MB of free space on hard drive.

4. Installation
Just copy nstpatch.exe, readpulse.dll, readpmaster.dll to any desired directory.

5. Getting support and bugs report is possible at the official site:
https://sourceforge.net/projects/nestopatch/

Best way to report a bug is to open a ticket: https://sourceforge.net/p/nestopatch/tickets/ 
Alternatively, you may post your questions and suggestions at the forum: https://sourceforge.net/p/nestopatch/discussion/

6. History of changes:
1.0       First released version. 
1.01:     1. Bugfix: The program would not allow attempt to test binomial distribution whe only one level is 
          defined, which could lead to a crash.
          2. Use of distribution analysis is now allowed when only 2 levels (one "all closed", and one open) are present.
1.02  Small interface modifications:
          1. A section of a Pulse file can be loaded by double click on a pulse tree.
          2. Caption on the button "Load selected' in the Pulse Tree tab added.
          3. Caption on the "Execute test" button (Levels analysis tab) is added.
          4. Coordinate systems use exponential (eg 2.3E-9) notation for very small and very large values.
          Bug fixes:
          1. Date of a recording of pulse file is correctly shown (readpulse.dll 1.2.2 is needed).
          2. Program would not crash if attempt is made to read data from a text file which does not contain them.
          3. Program would not report read error when text file is acually successfully read.
          4. Program now highlights correctly sections when sectioned text file was read with compression. 
1.1b1:    New functionality: Support for PatchMaster introduced (ReadPMaster library is needed).
          Time scale can be set relative to File, Group, Series, Sweep. As a result, sweeps of 
          a series may be viewed as in parallel. In any of these views, the line, connecting sweeps 
          may be drawn or not (by default, it is not drawn).
          Possibility to calculate an average current on an interval. If no levels specified, relative to "0", 
          otherwise relative to level "0". If a recording is shown with "parallel" view of groups, series or sweeps, 
          it is calculated for each of them.
          Interface: Trace name edit is added (since PatchMaster records up to 16 traces).
          Warning about absence of a selected trace in some selected sweeps is shown in StatusLine.
          Formatting of the data in Pulse Tree tab is improved.
          Bug fixes:
          Handling of exceptions is now correct. Program remains stable after many errors in file
          formats and reading.
          (readpulse.dll 2.2 is needed).