Thermal conditioned cabinet for TGR (for Europe 220/240 Volt EU plug)

Thermal Gradient Ring is based on thermal diffusion on a metal aluminum ring, cooled and heated on the two-extremity creating a 12 symmetrical temperature zones.

The environment where the machine is placed is critical in order guarantee the correct temperature balance and the correct thermal diffusion.

To achieve this goal the environment where the machine is installed needs to be at the average temperature between the two-extremity calculated with the following formula: (Cold Temp + Hot temp)/2

Typical temperature set-up are:

• Cold 5°C and Hot 30°C: where average temperature result is 20°C
• Cold 5°C and Hot 30°C: where average temperature is 27.5°C
• Cold 20°C and Hot 45°C: where average temperature is 32.5°C

As You can imagine working in a Lab with 27.5 or 32.5°C is not comfortable and not under the labor safety rules; the use of the cabinet resolve this matter and You can place the cabinet inside the Lab whit out the need to control the Lab temp.

In addition to this You can control the lighting inside the TGR machine mixing IR and visible light to create a comfortable lighting environment for the animal, and last but not least, the animals inside the cabinet are sound isolated to eliminate external noise bias.

A complete set-up provides an efficient air suction unit (placed outside of the cabinet) to extract from the cabinet all the hot air generated by the cool/hot elements present in the TGR machine, to avoid temperature interaction with the cabinet temperature controller.

All the necessary cables are provided to power the one or two TGR and to connect the inside units to the ANY-Maze computer which is essential to run the experiment with one or two TGR units via a single computer.

ANY-maze TGR limited version

The ANY-maze TGR limited version gives You the ability to execute the TGR experiment only with a cheaper version of the software.

As an alternative, if You plan to use ANY-Maze for other video-tracking experiment You may choose to buy the ANY-Maze full version edition.

Remember that ANY-Maze is strictly linked to the PC where is installed and You can use one single ANY-Maze license at a time; if You plan to perform TGR and other behavioral experiment at the same time, You may need to buy 2 ANY-Maze license where You can have a multiple license discount.

TGR Measurement Parameters analyzed

• Thermal zone occupancy: % of time spent in a zone.
• Zone entries: number of entries in each zone
• Preference temperature: calculated as the weighted preferred temperature
• A “preference temperature” can be defined as the mean value using the zone temperature and “spent time” and the % of time spent above this temperature will be automatically calculated.
• Cumulative distance: calculation of the cumulative distance per zone or per the whole apparatus
• Coordinates of location within the Ring: Can be used to visualize mouse behaviour in the ring with Heat Maps