Help & How it works
A quick guide to preparing your files and running the analysis.
Overview
This tool quantifies neutrophil clusters from your microscopy analysis spreadsheets. You provide two Excel files and a starting cluster size, and the engine processes them to produce a consolidated Excel report.
What you need
- Exactly two Excel files exported from your analysis:
- Selection
- Detailed
- A starting cluster size as an integer (e.g., 2).
Step-by-step guide
-
Upload your Excel files
Drag & drop the files into the dropzone on the Home page, or click the dropzone to browse and select files.
Please select exactly two Excel files: “Selection” and “Detailed”.
-
Set cluster size
Enter an integer (e.g., 2). The engine will automatically calculate subsequent sizes incrementally.
-
Start analysis
Click “Upload and Analyse”. A progress bar shows the upload, and the results appear on the page when the analysis finishes. The workbook downloads when you press the download button — the link is single use and lasts ten minutes.
What you get back
The results appear on the page as soon as the analysis finishes. The workbook is a separate download, and you choose when to take it.
On screen
- The headline figures, each with its definition — hover any tile.
- Where every row of your Detailed sheet went: blank, discarded as debris, retained but not clustered, or counted as a cluster. Most rows in a typical field are in the third group, and nothing used to report them.
- A histogram of object volumes with the rounding boundaries marked, so you can see how cleanly your data divides into whole cells.
- The cluster size distribution, and what the same figures would have been at a different starting cluster size.
- Any quality checks worth knowing about. Nothing appears when there is nothing to say.
In the workbook
| Sheet | What is on it |
|---|---|
| Detailed | Your own Detailed sheet, copied through unchanged. |
| Generated by the NCQ Project | The results table: every clustered object with its assigned size, and the summary figures. Five columns at the end are left blank for you to fill in. |
| NCQ Summary | The headline figures with their definitions beside them, plus which files, which cluster size and which version produced the file. |
| NCQ Quality Checks | The same checks shown on screen, with the numbers behind them. |
| NCQ Accounting | Where every row went, and the two independent cell counts reconciled against each other. |
| NCQ Distribution | Cluster sizes by count and by cells, with cumulative shares. |
| NCQ Sensitivity | What the figures would have been at neighbouring starting cluster sizes. |
| NCQ Excluded Rows | Every row that is not in the results table, listed individually with the reason. |
| NCQ Definitions | A glossary, so the file explains itself to whoever you send it to. |
For what the figures mean and how they are derived, see the Method page. The workbook carries no information about you or your device.
Tips & troubleshooting
- Make sure your files are in .xls or .xlsx format.
- File names do not have to literally be “Selection” and “Detailed”, but the content should correspond to those exports from your workflow.
- If the upload appears stuck, check your internet connection and try smaller files first.
- If you receive an error, please try again with clean exports. If issues persist, reach out via the Contact page.