The statistically-validated discriminating variables from each model (representing each dataset generated from varying the two mentioned processing parameters) were then compared. The results demonstrate that the change in pre-processing parameters (mass tolerance and intensity threshold, in this case) affected the downstream statistical analyses, particularly the statistically-selected variables: comparing these variables showed some overlap, but also each method had unique variables (Figure 3). This observation compliments and corroborates the above PCA results that data processing and treatment (prior to statistical analyses) alter not only the infographics, but also the extracted information, which might impact the interpretation thereafter.