Posted by Mark on 02/05/06 01:09

William Davis wrote:
> In article <ds30u5$1ct$1@daisy.noc.ucla.edu>, Mark <nospam@nospam.com>
> wrote:
>
>> Hi,
>>
>> We are in a university department, and want to produce some good video
>> of rats performing a task - good enough for the media.
>>
>> We are planning on using a mini-dv camera (that's the format they want).
>>
>> There are a number of concerns:
>>
>> * I know that lighting is critical, particularly when there is only
>> artificial light available. Since this will be a one-off, we don't want
>> to buy lights. What would the best lights be to use that we have hanging
>> around. Are incandescent lights okay? What about fluros? Perhaps a
>> combination of both? I think the lab is lit with fluros, but we can
>> probably supplement this with globes. Are there particular incandescent
>> globes that give good light for video?
>>
>> * We are thinking of using a PAL camera, and then converting to NTSC.
>> Does software conversion do this okay? We do currently have Adobe
>> Premiere. Does that do it with good results? Any recommendations for
>> other software, hopefully free?
>>
>> * The camera can record in both interlaced and progressive scan. Should
>> we use interlaced given that the footage might be broadcast? Or do the
>> tv networks now prefer progressive?
>
> Hi,
>
> I'm a videographer in a studio and I'd like to produce an experiment
> with rats that I could publish in a reputable scientific journal.
>
> I'm planning on using white rats.
>
> There are a number of concerns.
>
> I know that there are particular breeds of rats that professional
> scientists use for experiments. How can I get ahold of some.

You can search the internet for the breeders. I don't know if they would
ship to a private individual though. There are a lot of ethical controls
on how rats are treated.

I don't
> really want to study up on rats, or on science, or laboratory
> procedures, I just want to generate a scientific study that will stand
> up to public and professional scrutiny.

Unfortunately, what you are saying is fundamentally contradictory. You
can't produce a scientific study that will stand up to scientific
scrutiny without being aware of the issues that scientists will apply to
the study. You can only learn this by studying up on rats, science,
laboratory procedures and appropriate statistical analyses.

To begin with, you should read all of the published scientific papers
that use a maze similar to yours. Not only do you need to ensure that
your study is indeed new or original, but you need to cite previous
studies upon which it builds and the scientific issue it is addressing.

>
> I'm thinking that grey rats would be best because I know that solid
> white or solid black rats would be hard to light. Would grey rats be OK
> for my scientific study?
>

You need to choose a particular breed of rat, the choice of which needs
to be able to be justified based on the scientific question you are asking.

> Also, I'd like to make my maze complicated, but not too complicated.
> Since I've never made a rat maze before, can you help me understand what
> kind of maze professionals use and how I can make sure MY maze is
> professional enough to produce the kind of quality study results that
> can get my production taken seriously in something like the New England
> Journal of Medicine?

Again, the first step is to read the literature and find out what has
already been done.

>
> Thanks.
>
>
> ;)

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