Analysis in progress

Jan 06, 2020

546

Analysis in progressDear Backers,
I am currently at the laboratory waiting for the computers to finish data crunching, as the first analyses have finished and I have a huge dataset to sift through. The computers have, at the time of writing, been crunching for 75 hours and are still going. 
As with anything new, we will have to refine the protocol and do some additional analysis, but I am thrilled to finally see preliminary results of the past year's work! I am beginning to learn the challenges of this project but am fortunate to have an amazing group of supervisers being a part of this. I look forward to being able to present some real results which hopefully will come in soon.
Happy New Year and as always, thank you so much for supporting this project!
Amanda
 
 Data input for the system to analyse prepared samples on the Mass Spectrometry set up - the massive machines behind the glass!

MariaBulter, Landfugl, and 21 others like this.

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Gitte ChristensenBacker

Hej Amanda, I cannot help but note that the analysis so far has taken 75 hours and is not yet done. Unless it is a very large combinatorial problem, there must be faster ways of doing this - either the software is very inefficient or the data is organised in a way that is inconvenient for the analysis. If you like I would be happy to have a look at it. /Gitte

Jan 07, 20201

Amanda Høyer BoesenResearcher

Hi Gitte! Thank you so much - it finished about 10 hours later and going through the output it turned out there was a couple of corrupted data files (which I should have noticed) causing problems and it being a huge dataset of measurements that needed to be sifted through. We have now adjusted the parameters for the following analysis as well as removed problematic files. I expect the next round to run a lot smoother - and faster. It is a steep learning curve for me! I have no clue how the algorithm is set up, would be interesting to see how it is working behind the screen to be honest. I have been told there could be a limitation to database comparisons per minute as well, as to not overload servers. But in this case the culprit was likely to be the corrupted files. I have definitely learned a lesson! Amanda

Jan 07, 20200

Gitte ChristensenBacker

OK - good luck - and don't hesitate to contact me if you run into other problems with data analysis. Gitte

Jan 08, 20200

Katrine HøyerBacker

Good job - keep on walking and happy new year to you and yours

Jan 06, 20202

About This Project

Effects of lead exposure in Scandinavian brown bears

Inland Norway University of Applied Sciences

Toxicants of human origin are a growing concern to conservation. Lead (Pb) is a toxicant that accumulates in the body over time. It has no biological function and can cause many negative health effects over time. The World Health Organization (WHO) states that there are no safe levels of lead in the body.

The brown bear is exposed to lead through scavenging. We will investigate the impact of lead on the health of wild brown bears and identify predictable blood changes (biomarkers) of toxicity.