How important is it to evaluate the value of the Scaling Factor between different arrays?
Scaling Factor is the multiplication factor applied to each Signal value on an array. A Scaling Factor of 1.0 indicates that the average array intensity is equal to the Target Intensity. Scaling Factors will vary across different samples and there are no set guidelines for any particular sample type. However, if they differ by too much within a set of experiments, approximately 3-fold or more, this indicates wide variation in the .dat files. Therefore, the analyzed data (in the .chp file) should be treated with caution.