Figure 2

Diagram of two peak sets. Peaks in a sample peak set SP match with peaks in a reference peak set RP. SP is composed of detected TIC peaks, i.e, capital P's, in which individual EIC peaks, p's, up to five, are arranged in descending order of their signal-to-noise ratios. Note that RP is a peak set composed of "inferred TIC" peaks since individual EIC peaks, q's, are first identified by using the mz values of SP and then are grouped into a TIC peak. This also illustrates the matching of TIC peak P₁ to Q₁, but of P₂ to Q₃ because, in the latter case, either peak Q₂ had no EIC component (q₂₁and q₂₂) with a matching mz value, or the spectra of P₂ and Q₂ were insufficiently correlated, whereas Q₃ met both of these conditions, with q₃₂ having matching mz.