DATA ACQUISITION, ANALYSIS AND MANAGEMENT CORE

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Objectives In accordance with the NIH guidelines for a PO1, the Data Core is designed as "a service or a resource component" and therefore is not designed to pose research questions. The objective of this core is to maintain, implement, and provide quality control and end user support for data acquisition, statistical analysis and data presentation. These objectives are achieved through: 1. Animal information management 2. Data acquisition hardware, software and electronics support 3. Tissue inventory and archive management 4. Centralized data analysis, presentation and data archiving 5. Internet-based sharing and distribution In addition the Data Core is equipped to provide design, fabrication, implementation and maintenance support for the acquisition subsystems used during the in vivo experiments proposed within each Project. The Center for Pregnancy and Newborn Research (CPNR) at San Antonio currently has a data acquisition, computing and statistics group that has functioned successfully as a core for many years. Dr Nijland, Ms Jenkins and Mr Xie have worked to provide similar core functionality for the PO1 being renewed through this application. In addition, members of this team have provided core services for two PO1 grants simultaneously over a 5 year period in the past. The proposed Data Core will include Mark Nijland PhD (CPNR - Core PI), Susan Jenkins MS (CPNR - Research Associate), Dongbin Xie MA (CPNR - Electronics Engineer), To Be Named data entry/analyst and consultants Mark Sharp PhD (Director of Computing Services, Southwest Foundation for Biomedical Research [SFBR]) and John Schoolfield (Biostatistician, UTHSCSA). The CPNR is continually updating its data collection and analysis capabilities. The data acquisition systems (DAS) have always been state-of-the-art. Over the past several years development efforts have been focused in such areas as data sharing and collaboration, internet-based data presentation and laboratory information systems. Utilizing the internet has become an integral part of routine operations as a result of efforts to allow smooth access to information by investigators located within the CPNR, SFBR, as well as nationally and internationally. Historically many of these solutions have been implemented using hardware and software managed locally. Recently some software solutions have been transitioned to a commercial web service, and it is proposed to use a Managed Host or dedicated commercial internet server in the future, thereby removing the need for in-house maintenance and upgrade while maximizing flexibility and minimizing risk to campus information technology infrastructure. Accessibility via the World Wide Web is the key to providing access to the Data Core in an efficient manner. Each of the five approaches listed above are described in detail in Section 7 below.