New processing tools for weak and/or spatially overlapped macromolecular diffraction patterns

Tools originally developed for the treatment of weak and/or spatially overlapped time-resolved Laue patterns were extended to improve the processing of difficult monochromatic data sets. The integration program PrOW allows deconvolution of spatially overlapped spots which are usually rejected by standard packages. By using dynamically adjusted profile-fitting areas, a carefully built library of reference spots and interpolation of reference profiles, this program also provides a more accurate evaluation of weak spots. In addition, by using Wilson statistics, it allows rejection of non-redundant strong outliers such as zingers, which otherwise may badly corrupt the data. A weighting method for optimizing structure-factor amplitude differences, based on Bayesian statistics and originally applied to low signal-to-noise ratio time-resolved Laue data, is also shown to significantly improve other types of subtle amplitude differences, such as anomalous differences.