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Title: ARS-Media – A new public domain software package for the calculation of media recipes based on ion-specific constraints.

Author
item Evens, Terence
item Niedz, Randall

Submitted to: In Vitro Cellular and Developmental Biology
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: 6/14/2008
Publication Date: 6/14/2008
Citation: Evens, T.J., Niedz, R.P. 2008. Ars-media – a new public domain software package for the calculation of media recipes based on ion-specific constraints.. In Vitro Cellular and Developmental Biology. 44:S72

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: Understanding the ion-specific effects of the mineral elements is a central theme of biology because these ions are fundamental to the composition and maintenance of life. However, experiments concerned with determining ionspecific effects are generally performed with salt, as opposed to ion, manipulations. This means that researchers have had to accept a covariance in the co-ion of the salt used to manipulate the ion(s) of interest. The result is that the effect of a single ion cannot be determined as it is confounded with the potential combined effects of the other ions that are co-varied. Because of this difficulty, the majority of research studies concerned with determining ion-specific effects exhibit ion confounding. The software application ARS-Media utilizes a linear programming optimization algorithm to determine the combination salts, acids, and bases that satisfy any given target solution of ions. ARS-Media therefore allows researchers to construct experimental designs that use ions, as opposed salts, as individual factors and hence experimentally determine ion-specific effects on biological responses relating to ion type, concentration, and proportion.