GC Image GCxGC Edition Users' Guide

New Features and Improvements in Release 2.5

GC Image GCxGC Edition Release 2.5 (September 2014) has many new features and improvements. See the GC Image GCxGC Edition Users' Guide for full documentation. GC Image GCxGC Edition R2.5 requires Microsoft Windows Vista or later operating system. GC Image GCxGC Edition R2.5 (64-bit) requires a 64-bit Windows operating system. For Agilent MassHunter or JEOL AccuTOF users, the software requires Microsoft .Net Framework 4.0 or later.

QA Rapid Screen

GC Image GCxGC Edition R2.5 introduces QA Rapid Screen, which allows rapid inspection of analytical results. Users select peaks or regions for review, either interactively or with a CLIC expression, and then QA Rapid Review presents a set of user-configurable views for each. For example, a user might configure a perspective with views of a zoomed image, 1D slices, the MS view, and a SIC. Then, as each peak or region is reviewed, all selected views of the object are shown, presenting a tightly integrated perspective on each analysis. Features include:

• Two built-in perspectives (sets of views) for non-spectral and/or spectral data.
• Support for creating, editing, importing, and exporting perspectives, i.e., view configurations.
• Quick and easy tiling of selected views for user-defined layouts.
• Conditional cell colorization in the Blob/Area Table based on user-specified criteria (e.g., green and red indicating whether a test is passed or failed).

New and Improved Operations and Support for HRMS

GC Image GCxGC Edition R2.5 has new and improved features for HRMS data, including:

• Two new MS data binning methods based on a user-specified tolerance are supported: (a) summed intensities over fixed intervals defined by the user and (b) summed intensities within variable intervals that group ions within the user-specified tolerance. The new methods enable the supports for:
  • HRMS arithmetic operations between two chromatograms.
  • High-resolution integrated spectra for blobs and area objects. In earlier versions, blob and area spectra were summed within integer intervals only.
  • HRMS quantifier and qualifier ions.
  • HRMS in CLIC expressions.
  • HRMS SICs in MS Cube.
• Mass Defect and Kendrick Mass Defect plots in MS Viewer with support for selecting ranges for SIC images. (Available only in HRMS Edition software.)
• Sortable table of isotope differences and isotope graph in the Formula Calculator. (Available only in HRMS Edition software.)
• Support for exporting HRMS and intensity data for blobs or areas with Export Image plugins.
• Faster operations for importing MassHunter data files.

New Tools for Blob Detection

GC Image GCxGC Edition R2.5 has a new Interactive Blob Detection tool that allows users to specify and interactively experiment with blob detection configuration settings and filters.  In addition, the Blob Detection configuration now allows users to constrain blob detection with a user-defined CLIC Blob Detection Filter, i.e., a CLIC expression that constrains blob detection.  These two new tools work well together: the Interactive Blob Detection tool can be used to build and save a CLIC Blob Detection Filter.

New Tools for NIST14 Retention Indices and MS/MS Library Search

The new 2014 edition of the popular NIST/EPA/NIH Mass Spectral Library and Search Software (NIST14) integrates retention indexes into its searches and hitlists and significantly expands its EI and MS/MS libraries.  GC Image GCxGC Edition R2.5 has new features to support these new capabilities, including

• RI Search support with NIST14.
• MS/MS search with NIST14.

New and Improved Operations for Data Processing

GC Image GCxGC Edition R2.5 has new and improved operations for data processing, including:

• Arithmetic operations within a selected region.
• Additional options for improved gradient baseline correction.
• Align chromatograms to a template.
• Generate Area Objects for peak regions of selected blobs.
• Rank attributes in Analyze Blobs based on F Value, standard deviation, or relative standard deviation (RSD).
• Configuration settings for the sampling of data points in Areas and Included Graphics, as either the leading time (used in earlier versions) or the center time (which may be better for thin regions) with respect to modulation and sampling intervals.

Enhanced User Interfaces for Template Transformations

• Calculate a transform based on matched marker peaks.
• Local transformations allow users to limit the region of the template that is transformed.
• 2D transform mapping allows users to adjust the degree to which the transform is applied along the first and second column axes based on a parametric mapping function.

New and Improved Operations in Image Investigator™

In GC Image GCxGC Edition R2.5, Image Investigator supports:

• Removing selected chromatograms from an analysis without reloading all chromatograms.
• Editing class assignments without reloading all chromatograms.
• Keeping existing compound identification information when auto-generating a feature template.
• Refreshing qCLIC expressions for template peaks based on the composite chromatogram when auto-generating a feature template.

New Support for 3D Modeling and Visualizations including 3D Fly-by Videos

GC Image GCxGC Edition R2.5 can export its 3D View to a VTK file, an open-source file format for 3D Graphics. Then, that file, which represents the 2D chromatogram with elevation, can be accessed and manipulated in many other programs, including the free, open-source, multiplatform data analysis and visualization software ParaView, which can be used to generate 3D fly-by videos.

New and Improved Support for Slice Report (SIMDIS)

Slice Report in GC Image GCxGC Edition R2.5 supports:

• User-specified slices with fixed degree intervals.
• Custom cut points in either boiling point or percent off, specified in a comma-separated string, such as: "0, 100, 200, 400, 800".
• Configuration for the temperature unit to Celsius or Fahrenheit for D2887 reports.
• The latest oil batches, repeatability, and reproducibility tables in ASTM D2887-13.

Other New and Improved Operations

GC Image GCxGC Edition R2.5 has many other new and improved operations, including:

• Adjustable value mapping for individual SICs in MS Cube.
• A new blob table column, Graphical Groups, that lists the names of graphic groups to which a blob belongs in a semicolon-separated string, e.g.: "C9+;C10+".
• Numerical sorting of pure-number names in text columns of the Blob Table, Blob Set Table, Template Object Table, and Comparison Report.
• An option in the Comparison Report to print the "Description" column in addition to the "Name" column.
• A Configuration setting for whether the Residual Group is shown in the Blob Set Table.
• A Configuration setting for whether Residual Area is shown in the Area Table.
• A Configuration setting for placing a new Text Object of a graphic object relative to object.
• Sticky modes for the Cursor Palette buttons for creating new graphics, blobs, or template objects.
• An Append option for populating LRI Tables from identified blobs.
• Support in Export Image to export selected regions to text formats.
• Saving SIC and CLIC images from chromatograms with variable modulation.
• A View Journal button on the GC/LC Project Image Details panel.
• Reorganized toolbars.

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GC Image™ GCxGC Edition Users' Guide © 2001–2014 by GC Image, LLC, and the University of Nebraska.