User guide

Bands
14-9
Shoulder Sensitivity
Normally, band detection tries to distinguish shoulders as separate bands.
When looking at a lane trace, these bands appear as flat or gently sloping
abutments to darker, better-defined bands (i.e., there is no dip on the trace
between the two bands).
Increasing the Shoulder Sensitivity value will result in more shoulders being
detected as bands. Changing this setting to zero will result in no shoulders
being recognized as separate bands.
If band detection calls a doublet a single band, check the lane trace to see if
there is a dip between the peaks of the two bands. If there is no dip, increasing
the Shoulder Sensitivity value will help resolve the two bands.
Size Scale
The Size Scale field helps distinguish between trends in signal intensity and
random intensity fluctuations. It is the number of pixels in a vertical column
that are taken together to determine whether a band is present.
The Size Scale parameter is similar to the Noise Filter in that it uses the size of
objects in the image to determine the nature of those objects. The default Size
Scale setting of 5 pixels is optimal for most gel images. It can be set to any
whole number greater than or equal to 3.
If a gel image has high levels of background noise, a larger Size Scale may be
preferable. When noise permits, small values are preferred so that small
features will be detected.
You may also choose to increase the Size Scale if your gel only has a small
number of thick bands and it is scanned at high resolution.
14.2.b Band Detection Parameter Sets
Saving Parameters
Once you have found a set of parameters that are optimal for detecting bands
in your image, you can save them for future use on similar images. The Save
button at the top of the Detect Bands dialog box allows you to do so.