JP3196360B2 - Activity measurement device - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a device for measuring the activity of an experimental animal in a toxicity test or the like, and more particularly to an activity measurement suitable for measuring the activity of a newborn or a fetus. Related to the device.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In toxicity tests using laboratory animals,
Generally, a method of measuring the change over time of the activity of the animal is performed.However, as a method of measuring the activity of the animal, conventionally, an animal to be measured is placed in a rotating basket, and the activity of the animal is measured. It is often used to measure the number of times a rotating car rotates.

[0003]

In the case where the animal to be measured is a newborn or a fetus, the amount of movement and the force itself are small, and in the conventional rotating cage system, it is possible to discriminate individual differences and differences due to physical abnormalities. There was a problem that it was difficult.

[0004] The present invention has been made in view of such circumstances, and has a small movement such as a newborn or a fetus, and
Even for experimental animals with low power, the momentum and locomotion can be detected with high precision every moment, and the change over time in the locomotion of the measured animal can be obtained from the detection results. It is an object of the present invention to provide a device that can accurately measure the activity amount of a newborn baby or the like of an animal that has been difficult to measure.

[0005]

The structure for achieving the above object will be described with reference to the basic conceptual diagram shown in FIG. 1. The activity measuring apparatus according to the present invention is used for mounting an animal to be measured. A load measuring means b having a measuring table a having an enclosure, a calculating means c for calculating and processing the measurement data of the load measuring means b, an output means d for outputting or recording the calculation result, and a calculating means c The calculation means c calculates the difference y of the instantaneous measurement data from the load measurement means b with respect to the static load of the animal to be measured. It is characterized in that the absolute value of the difference y is integrated or integrated every time t set by the setting means e and the result (M) is output.

[0006]

When the animal to be measured is placed on the measuring table a, the value of the data measured by the load measuring means b such as an electronic balance changes every moment due to the movement of the animal to be measured. Therefore, the difference between the instantaneous measurement data and the static load (weight) of the subject animal is proportional to the instantaneous exercise amount of the subject animal.

Therefore, the absolute value of the above difference is calculated by the setting time e
When the integration or integration is performed at every set time, the integration or integration result becomes proportional to the activity amount of the measured animal at each set time, and the change of the activity amount of the measured animal over time can be obtained. .

Here, even if the animal to be measured is an animal having a small amount of movement or power such as a newborn or a fetus, the activity amount data is obtained from a change in the load measurement result based on an arbitrary movement on the measuring table a. Problems such as those in the conventional rotating cage system do not occur.

[0009]

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing the configuration of an embodiment of the present invention. The load detection unit 1 is a high-sensitivity electronic balance having a sensitivity of about 0.1 to 10 mg. A container 2 having an enclosure 2a for accommodating the animal W to be measured is mounted as a measuring table. Digital data in accordance with the load acting on the data can be output every predetermined minute time.

The load detecting unit 1 has a normal tare erasing function, and the load measurement data at the time when a tare erasing key (not shown) is operated is stored as a tare amount. The data obtained by subtracting from the load measurement data is output. Further, the container 2 is placed in a weighing room surrounded by the windshield 3, and it is considered that disturbance such as wind does not affect the load measurement result.

The load detector 1 is connected to an arithmetic and control unit 4 mainly composed of a microcomputer.
Is digitally sampled by the arithmetic and control unit 4 every moment.

The operation control unit 4 includes a keyboard 5, a CRT,
And the like, and a printer 7 are connected to each other.
The arithmetic control unit 4 performs the following arithmetic operation using the momentary data from the load detecting unit 1 and displays the result on the display 6 or prints out the result on the printer 7.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing a system operation based on a program written in the arithmetic and control unit 4. The operation of the embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to FIG.
Prior to the measurement, the animal 5 to be measured is put into the container 2 after setting the separation time t from the keyboard 5 to, for example, one minute. At this time, since the animal W does not exercise much during the predetermined time when it is placed in the container 2, the user operates the tare erasing key when the animal W is at rest and the load data is stable. . As a result, the static load (weight) x ₀ of the animal W is stored as the tare amount, and thereafter, data y = a _{value obtained} by subtracting the static load x ₀ from the instantaneous load value x is obtained.
x−x ₀ is output from the load detection unit 1.

The arithmetic and control unit 4 samples and stores the data y from the load detecting unit 1 every moment while measuring the elapsed time from when the tare erasing key is operated. Then, every time the time reaches the separation time t set by the keyboard 5, any one of the following equations (1) to (4) is calculated using all the data y sampled within the time t. In this way, the integrated value or integrated value of the absolute value of y within the time t, or the integrated value or integrated value of the mean square value of y is calculated, and the result M is added together with the instantaneous data y and further within the time t. Is added to the maximum value and the minimum value of y and output to the display 6 or the printer 7.

[0015]

(Equation 1)

By repeating the above operation every time t elapses, the display 6 or the printer 7 obtains a display or recording result as illustrated in FIG. From the output contents illustrated in FIG. 4, for example, the animal W is actively moving for 1 to 2 minutes after the start of the measurement, is slightly settled for 3 to 4 minutes, and has less movement thereafter. For example, the time course of the amount of exercise of the animal W can be known.

Even in the same kind of animal, since the momentum varies from day to day, physical abnormalities, etc., the above-mentioned change pattern of the momentum also changes. It is possible to clearly grasp the difference in the momentum pattern caused by the movement.

In the above embodiment, an example is described in which the static load (weight) of the animal W is stored using the tare erasing function. However, the present invention is not limited to this.
The after putting into the container 2, the load measurement data x obtained, for example, several tens of seconds by averaging, stores the value as a static load x _0, can be arithmetic processing using the difference between the value .

[0019]

As described above, according to the present invention,
The difference between the measured load value when the animal to be measured is placed on the measuring table and the static load value of the animal is sampled every moment, and the sampling data is integrated or integrated and output at each set time interval. Therefore, even when a newborn or fetus of an animal with small movement or power is measured, the time-dependent transition of the minute amount of movement can be accurately grasped, and the amount of activity based on the conventional rotating cage method can be measured. It is possible to reliably grasp the difference in the amount of exercise with respect to a normal animal caused by a physical or brain abnormality or the like, without causing a problem such as a measurement method.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a basic conceptual diagram showing a configuration of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a configuration of an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing a system operation based on a program written in the arithmetic control unit 4;

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an example of a display or recording result obtained by an embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Load detection part 2 Container 2a Enclosure 3 Windshield 4 Arithmetic control part 5 Keyboard 6 Display 7 Printer

────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuing from the front page (72) Inventor Tomiharu Ito 729-5 Ochiai, Hadano-shi, Kanagawa Food and Drug Safety Center Inside the Hadano Research Institute (72) Inventor Norio Kawahara No. 1 Kuwaharacho, Nishinokyo, Nakagyo-ku, Kyoto-shi, Kyoto Stock Shimadzu Corporation Sanjo Plant (72) Inventor Akio Yagi 1 Nishinokyo Kuwabara-cho, Nakagyo-ku, Kyoto City, Kyoto Prefecture Shimadzu Corporation Sanjo Plant (56) References Real Open Showa 55-60 (JP, U) Real Open Show 55 -131663 (JP, U) JP-A 54-13888 (JP, U) JP-A 58-184662 (JP, U) JP-B 47-34637 (JP, B1) JP-B 47-17193 (JP, B1) (58) Fields surveyed (Int.Cl. ⁷ , DB name) A61B 5/22

Claims (1)

(57) [Claims] 1. A load measuring means provided with a measuring table provided with an enclosure for placing an animal to be measured, a calculating means for performing arithmetic processing on measurement data of the load measuring means, and outputting or recording the calculation result. Output means, and setting means for setting a break time of the processing by the calculating means, wherein the calculating means calculates a difference between the momentary measurement data from the load measuring means and the static load of the subject animal. An activity amount measuring device configured to integrate or integrate the absolute value of the difference for each time set by the setting means and to output the integrated value.