Improvement in Quality of Signal

There are few things more satisfying to the experimentalist than seeing the improved quality of signal which is obtained with modern instrumentation compared to the old. Spectral bands, which previously were bumps on the side of a peak are clearly resolved signals formerly buried in background noise are extracted and evaluated with certainty. Some of this improvement is due to the developments in 

Perhaps the most dramatic example of the improvement in signal brought about by mathematical means is the application of the Fourier transform to infrared and NMR spectroscopy14 16). In the former instance, interferometry has become a practical possibility and in the latter it has permitted carbon-13 NMR to be developed. 

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The range of methods and their scope is shown by the symposium arranged by Kowalski9) and the books of Massart, Dijkstra and Kaufman 10), and Kateman and Pijpers n>. For the purpose of discussion they may be grouped as (i) statistical — quality control (ii) improvement in quality of signal (iii) improvement in quality of the method (iv) extraction of analytical information. 

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