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Trial Design

Overview

The Trial Unit of the Katmandoo trial structure corresponds to the experimental unit in a comparative experiment and trial units are part of a Trial Design. For each trial unit Katmandoo stores the design factors (unit position) that uniquely identify it within the experiment and the particular treatment combination applied to it.

Katmandoo can generate trial design using DiGGer. The trial design can be designed externally and imported into Katmandoo.

Detail

Unit Position

A unit position uniquely identifies a trial unit in a trial. The Unit Position Virtual Column (eg Range, Cage etc) must exist in the database before starting the Import Trial Design Wizard. While importing trial design, Unit Positions are generated by the system using the Unit Position Virtual Column and its value.

Examples:
Unit Position Text Unit Position Virtual Column and its value Can be From...
Range1|Row2 Range = 1 and Row = 2 Plant Agronomy Trial
Column1|Row2 Column = 1 and Row = 2 Plant Agronomy Trial
Cage5|Row2 Cage = 5 and Row = 2 Pig Trial
MaltRun2|Cannister1|Partition1 Malt Run = 2, Cannister = 1 and Partition = 1 Barley Malting
FlourDay3|MillingSequence40 Flour Day = 3 and Milling Dequence = 40 Wheat Milling
Flask1 Flask = 1 Barley Malting

Unit Position can be added using [ Task > Trial > Raw data > Manage Unit Position of Trial Unit ].

Treatment

Treatment provide information of the Virtual treatment to the genotype. So, it is optional. The Treatment Factor (eg Seeding Density, Row Space etc) must exist in the database before starting the Import Trial Design Wizard.While importing trial design, treatments are generated by the system using the Treatment Factor and its value.

Examples:
Treatment Text Treatment Factor (Column) and its value Can be From...
NitrogenApplied250|SeedingDensity150 Nitrogen Applied (kg/ha) = 250 and Seeding Density (plant/m2) = 150  Plant Agronomy Trial
RowSpace15 Row Space (cm) = 15 Plant Agronomy Trial

Treatment can be added using [ Task > Trial > Raw data > Manage Treatment ].

Genotype

Though genotype is part of the actual treatment of a trial unit, it is separated from the additional treatments to keep is simple.

The genotype must exist in the database before trial design of the trial can be imported.

Sample Supplier

Sample supplier information is stored as an organisation in the database as it is the organisation that suppliers the genotype sample used in the trial unit of the trial.

If the soure file that is used to importing Trial Design does not have Sample Supplier column or has empty value (null) for the Sample Supplier column, then Unknown Organisation is used by default.

Sample Entry Number

Sample Entry Number identifies the genotype sample used in the trial unit.  It can have up to 32 alpha-numeric characters but it is not a unique key in the Trial Unit table.

For the chemistry lab, it can be Sample Number, Sample Id, Sub-sample Number etc.

Replicate Number

Replicate Number identifies the replicate of a genotype sample within a trial design.

Source Trial Unit

Source Trial Unit that identifies the source of the sample used in the Trial Unit of the Trial. For example, the source trial unit for a wheat grain sample used in a milling trial can be a trial unit of a Wheat Variety Evaluation Trial.

While importing data, the source file must provide information of one of the Alternate Key of Trial and the Unit Position of the source trial to identify the source trial unit.

Latitude and Longitude

The Latitude and Longitude of TrialUnits are NOT  used by any navigator but can be used to export data from Katmandoo in order to use in a Geographical Information System (GIS). 
How is Latitude and Longitude managed in Katmandoo?
When Latitude and Longitude is entered for an existing or a new Trial Unit (while importing trial design), Katmandoo checks whether the Latitude and Longitude already exist in the GeoCoordinate table. If it does, then GeoCoordinateId is updated for the Trial Unit record. If not, a new record is created in the GeoCoordinate table with given Latitude and Longitude. Then new GeoCoordinateId is updated for the Trial Unit record.

Table Structure

Column Name Description
TrialUnitId (PK) Identification Number that uniquely identifies a trial unit (Plot for field trial) in the trial design.
TrialId (AK) Id that identifies the trial of the trial unit.
UnitPositionId (AK) Id that uniquely identifies unit position of the trial unit in a trial.
GenotypeId (FK) Id that identifies the genotype. A trial design can have more than one genotype but with different Replicate Number.
TreatmentId (FK) (optional) Id that identifies treatment information in addition to the Genotype.
GeoCoordinateId (FK) Id that reference to the Latitude and Longitude in the GeoCoordinate table taken at outside corner of the trial unit.
SampleSupplierId (FK) (optional) Id that identifies the organisation that supplied sample that was used in the Trial Unit of the Trial.
SourceTrialUnitId (FK) (optional) Id that identifies the source trial unit of the sample used in the Trial Unit. For example, the source trial unit for a wheat grain sample used in a milling trial will be a trial unit of a Wheat Field Trial.

Pre-requisite to add a trial unit

The following information must exist before a Contact can be added into the database.
Note: Although Unknown Organisation can be used for Sample Supplier, it is preferable to add the Organisation before importing trial units of the Trial Design. This avoids changing at a later date.

Main Form

To display trial units in the Trial Design Main Form, follow the steps below:
Illustrative snapshot:
Main Form of Trial Unit (Click it to change its size)
  1. Trial Navigator with the loaded trial navigator nodes (in the snapshot the selected node is WRSA07COWA2 Raw data)
    • Click here for an illustration of the navigator template.
  2. Toolbar of Trial Unit Main form.
  3. Trial Design Main Form displaying the trial units and the raw data of the selected trial node. 
    • Click here for an illustration of the main form template.
  4. Treatment of the selected Trial Unit (ie Dummy Genotype in Column1|Row1 position of the trial design of the trial).
  5. Raw data of the selected Trial Unit (ie Dummy Genotype in Column1|Row1 position of the trial design of the trial).
    • Note the Sample Type, Trait Recorded Date and Operator for each raw data of the selected trial unit.
  6. Trial Design toolbar menu
  7. Raw data toolbar menu
  8. KollecTrait menu
  9. Raw data of the selected Trial Unit (ie Dummy Genotype in Column1|Row1 position of the trial design of the trial).
    • Note the Sample Type, Trait Recorded Date and Operator for each raw data of the selected trial unit.

Trial Design Menu (in Trial Main Form)

Trial Design menu can be accessed from either [ Record ] menu of the Trial Main Form or from the tool bar of the Trial Main Form.
Illustrative snapshot of Trial Design menu in the TrialUnit Main Form:
Trial Design Menu (Click it to change its size)
  1. Generate Single Trial Design
  2. Generate Trial Designs of one or more trials
  3. Import Trial Design
  4. Export Trial Design of selected Trials
  5. Export Trial Design Report

Raw data Menu

Click here for Raw data Menu.

KollecTrait Menu

Illustrative snapshot of KollecTrait menu in the Trial Unit Main Form:
KollecTrait Menu (Click it to change its size)
  1. Export datafile of selected trial for KollecTrait
  2. Import Raw data using KollecTrait output file

Setup Form

Important Note: The trial unit records can be added using importing trial design of the trial ONLY.

To edit a trial unit, follow the steps below :
Illustrative snapshot:
Setup Form of Trial Unit (Click it to change its size)
  1. Trial information of the selected trial unit.
  2. When this form is loaded, Genotype combobox lists the genotypes used in the trial. But Search Genotype (3) can be used to load more genotypes.
  3. Click it to show Search Genotype Component that can be used to load genotypes from the database into the Genotype combobox (2).
  4. The Unit Position of the trial unit in the trial design can not be changed.
  5. Treatment is disabled since the trial unit has raw data records. Click here for information on editing restricted value.
  6. Sample Supplier is disabled since the trial unit has raw data records. Click here for information on editing restricted value.

Delete Trial Design

Important Note: System does NOT allow to delete individual trial unit of the trial design of a trial. When a trial unit is selected to be deleted, in fact all the trial units of the trial design are selected to be deleted.

Use [ Record > Delete Trial Unit ] to PERMANENTLY delete all the trial unit records of the trial design of a trial.

Trial Units for Composite Sample

For field crop trials, grain samples of a genotype from replicate (unit positions) are put into a single bag to make composite sample. It is done to reduce cost and in some case because of very small quatility and available grain sample.

To store raw data for the composite samples, the trial units should be added in the database. Suggestion:
  1. Export Trial Design of the trial.
  2. Add a row in the exported file for each genotypes that have composite sample. 
    • Important note: Enter 0 (zero) for one Unit Position Virtual Columns (for crop field trial, it can be Column or Row) of each genotypes.
    • Example to import trial design for composite sample.
      Trial Acronym Genotype Rep Column Row*
      WHAA07STRX3 XYZ1 0 0 1
      WHAA07STRX3 XYZ2 0 0 2
      WHAA07STRX3 XYZ3 0 0 3
      *Unique row number within a trial design since a trial can have only one genotype in a unit position.
  3. In the Trial Main Form, use [ Record > Import > Import Trial Design ] to import trial design for composite sample using [ Import Trial Design of one or more Trials ].

Export / Import

Export
Import

See Also