| Here are some quick answers for how to
perform certain kinetics analyses. This list is not comprehensive;
you should read the main
kinetics help pages to understand how the
platform works before you examine these tips.
How can I determine the fraction of responding
cells?
The fraction of responding cells is defined as the
percentage of events with a fluorescence (or ratio) above a certain
threshold value. You can set this value manually; choose to display
"% of events > threshold" under Function in the kinetics
Options box, then click on "Set Threshold." Enter the
exact value you want to use as a threshold.
Another strategy might be to define a certain time
period of the analysis as the "background" time. This
might be the first 30 seconds of collection; perhaps it is the end
of the collection period. Create a timeslice corresponding to the
background period. Then, after clicking on "Set threshold"
in the kinetics Options box, select that time slice in the popup
menu. Now choose which percentile of the events in that time slice
to set as the background. For example, if you choose the 95th percentile,
you ask FlowJo to define the threshold as the 95th percentile of
events in your timeslice (thus, the background time has 5% responding
cells). You might also choose the 98th percentile (to limit to 2%
responding cells during the background).
The advantage of the second strategy is that when
you copy the kinetics analysis to other samples, you don't have
to adjust the threshold manually for each sample­rather,
FlowJo calculates it with respect to the particular time-period
you define as backgroud.
I have determined that only 40% of my cells respond;
how do I display the fluorescence of only the responding cells?
Here you have two options. First, realize that the
median fluorescence of the top 40% of a population is the 80th percentile
of the entire population. Thus, you could display the 80th percentile
as a function of time, and you will get a plot that gives you, essentially,
the median fluorescence of the responding population as a function
of time.
Alternatively, you could define a response threshold
(see above), and then choose to display the mean or median of events
above this threshold.
I wish to perform more complex statistical analyses
on the kinetics data using other programs. How can I get the kinetics
data?
Simply copy from the graph window and paste into
your spreadsheet: you will get two columns. The first column has
the time values; the second, the function values displayed in the
window. Note that if you have selected smoothing, then smoothed
values are copied. In other words, whatever values were used to
plot your graph will be copied to the spreadsheet. (Note that
there is a Preference that controls whether or not the data values
are copied to the clipboard in addition to the graphic; the default
setting is to copy both).
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