Re: Graphics Resolution
David Galbraith (dgalbrai@ag.Arizona.EDU)
Wed, 24 Sep 1997 20:50:03 -0700 (MST)
I am concerned that smoothing intoduces a false sense of security
when analyzing merely uniparametric data. For example, when we
first started measuring DNA contents in plants and obtained
3% CV's we thought this was really cool, and continued to
accumulate for extended periods of time, maintaining the
3% CV. Incidentally, this indicates the staining is stable
over time, but we just admired the way the jagged histograms became really
smooth, which then were plotted manually by a graphic
artist!
Now smoothing allows presentations of histograms with alarmingly low
ordinates, even with ordinates completely lacking range scales! Clearly
the profiles appear smooth, but what do they signify?
...no sound or fury left, and, consequently, nada!
David Galbraith
P.S. 1,024 bin histograms only compounded the problem, since the numbers
of events per bin were not compensated by an eight-fold increase in
collection time!