Topino: A Graphical Tool for Quantitative Assessment of Molecular Stream Separations

Area of Science:

• Analytical Chemistry
• Separation Science
• Data Visualization

Background:

• Quantitative evaluation of molecular-stream separation (MSS) data has been a long-standing challenge due to its multidimensional nature.
• Existing methods lack reproducibility and uniformity, hindering accurate assessment of separation quality.
• Dimensionality reduction is crucial for efficient analysis of MSS data.

Purpose of the Study:

• To introduce a novel, user-friendly software tool for processing MSS data.
• To enable quantitative assessment of MSS quality through a simplified data representation.
• To overcome the analytical bottleneck in MSS data evaluation.

Main Methods:

• Development of the open-source software Topino with a graphical user interface.
• Implementation of a dimensionality reduction technique by converting MSS data to a polar coordinate system.
• Integration of intensity along the radius axis to create a 2D angulagram plot.

Main Results:

• The angulagram simplifies visual assessment and enables determination of stream width, linearity, and deflection.
• Topino processes MSS images in under 2 minutes, offering a fast and straightforward workflow.
• Software robustness was confirmed through comparative analysis by multiple users.

Conclusions:

• Topino effectively converts complex MSS data into an analyzable 2D format (angulagram).
• The software provides reliable quantitative parameters for MSS quality assessment.
• Topino serves as an indispensable tool for researchers in molecular-stream separation, regardless of experience level.