Statistical testing for continuous temperature data

SW1993

Hello,

 

I am struggling to decide which statistical test to use. I'll give a short explanation of my performed research:

I've monitored the leg temperature of a chicken for 6 days. On the 6th day, I introduce a stressor (a loud sound). Previous research showed a significant temperature drop at the leg using infrared thermal imaging, when a stressor is introduced.

Since my temperature data is collected using a wearable leg sensor, temperature data is highly contaminated. Therefore, I automatically detected 5 distinct periods (e.g: sitting periods are characterized by a remarkable increase in temperature since the chicken is sitting on the sensor, and hence increases the sensing temperature). For these 5 periods (sit, stand and heating, stand and cooling, activity and heating, activity and cooling), at least 15 observations are available. So I have the means and standard deviations for each of these 5 periods.

I want to detect if the continuous temperature data of a stressor-period significantly differs from the continuous temperature data of the 5 other periods.

Unfortunately, I only have 1 measurement of the stressor-period... I was thinking to perform a (multiple) paired t-test between the 5 non-stressor periods and the stressor-period, but since I only have 1 measurement of the stressor-period, I don't think that is feasible... Can anyone help me out or suggest some literature I should look into?

 

 

Thank you.

Kind regards,

Sam.

Mark_Bailey

I'm glad that you turned to this forum for help. We will try!

 

Your study is to confirm that the stressor causes a decrease in the temperature. I assume that you have multiple subjects. Then a one-sided paired t-test is appropriate.

 

You believe that the data are "highly contaminated." I am not sure what you mean or if this claim invalidates the data. You continue to describe how the temperature reading depends on the position of the subject. Is that what you mean by contamination?

 

You measure the temperature during 5 distinct periods prior to the treatment. Does one of the periods match the position when the stressor is applied? If so, then this period is the only one relevant in the matched pairs test.

 

Why are you able to make multiple measurements before the treatment but only one measurement after the treatment? Also, what do the multiple measurements represent, replication or time series or something else?

 

Am I even close to understanding the issue?