Automating Phase Change Lines and Their Labels Using Microsoft Excel(R)

A concise review of recent advancements in the graphical training of behavior analysts

This Concise Review is an appraisal of contemporary research on teaching single-case experimental design (SCED) graphical creation published between 2017-2021. Recent work on SCED graphical creation is summarized and areas for future research are highlighted.

Creating Multiple-Baseline Graphs With Phase Change Lines in Microsoft Excel for Windows and macOS

Although Excel 2016 may be the most common graphing software, it is often confusing to use effectively. In the field of applied behavior analysis, graphs are crucial for analyzing data and sharing results. Multiple-baseline design graphs are one of the most popular graphs used by behavior analysts, but they often fall short of meeting established quality standards. This tutorial extends prior tutorials to provide detailed instructions on how to create a multiple-baseline design graph that not only meets quality standards but also includes phase change lines built into the graph and an acceptable x/y-axis ratio. This tutorial is applicable for both Windows and macOS platforms.

Remote teaching of publication-quality, single-case graphs in Microsoft Excel

Microsoft Excel is ubiquitous, cost-effective, and can be used to create publication-quality single-case design graphs. We systematically replicated the GraphPad Prism video tutorial by Mitteer et al. (2018) to teach 24 master's students to create multiple-baseline graphs using Excel 2016. Students' mean accuracy on the multiple-baseline graph was 25% in pretraining, 86% with the video tutorial, and 96% with the review checklist. Next, students used the same video tutorial to create multielement and reversal graphs. Students' mean accuracy on the multielement graph was 93% with video tutorial and 94% with review checklist, and accuracy on the reversal graph was 82% with video tutorial and 94% with review checklist. Students reported moderate to high satisfaction with both training components. The results support scientist-practitioners using the video tutorial and review checklists to create three common graphs using Excel 2016, Excel 2019, and Excel Office 365.

Creating Functional Analysis Graphs Using Microsoft Excel® 2016 for PCs

Practitioners in the field of applied behavior analysis rely on graphing software to display the data they collect during assessments. However, the graphing process can be cumbersome and procedures change as new versions of software programs are released. The current tutorial provides step-by-step instructions for graphing functional analysis data using Microsoft Excel 2016 for PCs. Instructions for creating functional analysis data depicted in reversal, latency, mulitielment, and trial-based functional analysis are provided.

Developing BIOTEL: A Semi-Automated Spreadsheet for Estimating Telomere Length and Biological Age

Introduction: Telomere length (TL) is causally related to aging and several age-related diseases. Specifically, the abundance of short telomeres and the rate of telomere shortening are strong determinants of cell homeostasis. Thus, tools for analyzing and manipulating TL data can vastly improve research focused on aging. Aim: In this study, we developed a semi-automated worksheet, BIOTEL, to generate individual and group TL statistics and provide a crude estimation of biological age. Results: Data from the Telomere Length Database Project (TLDP) were implemented to the spreadsheet to produce TL statistics. 150 participants were included, and their age was from 21 to 82 years, and the sex distribution ratio was 52.3%: 47.7% (male: female). Initially, we analyzed the fluorescence intensities of telomeres that were measured on metaphase spread leukocytes using three-dimensional (3D) quantitative-fluorescent in situ hybridization (Q-FISH) procedures (3D DNA FISH) with a (C3TA2)3 peptide nucleic acid (PNA) probe. Raw data of fluorescence intensities, demographic data and medical records from the participants were imported into the worksheet. Basic statistical analyses of TL data were provided through BIOTEL, including TL percentiles, specialized charts for TL distribution including the percentage of critically short telomeres (< 3,000 kilobases), individual telomere profiles, and graphs of biological age vs. chronological age. Conclusion: BIOTEL ver. 2.4 is a functional semi-automated worksheet that calculates a wide range of TL statistics, thus a useful tool with applications in research of telomeres and biological age estimation.

Integrating Phase Change Lines and Labels into Graphs in Microsoft Excel®

Creating phase change lines and their corresponding labels in Microsoft Excel® remains a difficulty for many behavior analysts who want these display features to be integrated into the graph itself. Previous methods designed to address this issue have had limited utility across the types of data sets commonly analyzed by behavior analysts. The purpose of this article is to provide a fully functional method for integrating phase change lines and labels into Microsoft Excel® line graphs. This method is a combination of previous recommendations and allows for easy integration of new data and exportation of graphical displays to other software programs (e.g., Microsoft Word® and PowerPoint®).