A computerized database as an aid to study allergen producing organisms in house dust

Abstract

When studying house‐dust biology, one deals with a huge amount of data. In order to work on the data in an orderly and efficient way a computerized database has been developed for storing data found in field experiments. Six levels in this biological database characterize the home, the room and the substrate from which the sample has been taken, the sample taken from the substrate, the analyzed fraction taken from the sample and the arthropodal, fungal, guanine and mite antigen content of the fraction. In total thirteen files are being used for storing the data. As a database management system dBASE II is used. Interfaces with other computer programs are possible such as SPSS (Statistical Package for Social Sciences), BMDP (Biomedical Computer Programs), Wordstar, Basic interpreter and SIR (Scientific Information Retrieval). With the aid of this software it is possible to store, revise and retrieve the data easily and to draw conclusions in the field of ecology. An example shows some features of this database.