| abstract |
The invention provides methods for aligning and filtering chromatograms representative of complex mixture samples. In one embodiment, the invention includes identifying and matching related peaks to determine a temporal offset, and applying a nonlinear temporal shift to account for the offset. In other embodiments, the invention provides methods for smoothing chromatographic data by application of an autoregressive filter to provide improved signal-to-noise ratio, data compression, and resolution. The alignment and filtering methods may be performed separately or combined. In certain embodiments, the invention provides improved chromatographic pattern recognition capability and improved classification of samples of complex chemical and/or biological mixtures. |