Add section 5.2, direct vertical slice reconstruction

docs/source/toc/section2.rst

@@ -78,13 +78,26 @@ Some featuring methods in Algotom are as follows:
        :name: fig_2_7
        :align: center
 
+-   Direct vertical reconstruction for single slice, multiple slices, and multiple slices at
+    different orientations.
+
+    .. image:: section2/figs/fig_2_8.png
+       :width: 100%
+       :name: fig_2_8
+       :align: center
+|
+    .. image:: section2/figs/fig_2_9.png
+       :width: 100%
+       :name: fig_2_9
+       :align: center
+
 Development principles
 ----------------------
 
--   While Algotom offers a comprehensive range of tools for tomographic data processing
-    covering raw-data reading, pre-processing, reconstruction, post-processing, and data
-    saving; its development primarily focuses on pre-processing techniques. This distinction
-    makes it a prominent feature among other tomographic software.
+-   While Algotom offers a complete set of tools for tomographic data processing covering
+    pre-processing, reconstruction, post-processing, data simulation, and calibration techniques;
+    its development strongly focuses on pre-processing techniques. This distinction makes it a
+    prominent feature among other tomographic software.
 
 -   To ensure that the software can work across platforms and is easy-to-install; dependencies
     are minimized, and only well-maintained `Python libraries <https://github.com/algotom/algotom/blob/master/requirements.txt>`__

docs/source/toc/section3.rst

@@ -2,7 +2,7 @@ Installation
 ============
 
 Algotom is installable across operating systems (Windows, Linux, Mac) and
-works with Python >=3.7. It is a Python library not an app. Users have to
+works with Python >=3.8. It is a Python library not an app. Users have to
 write Python codes to process their data. For beginners, a quick way to get started with Python
 programming is to install `Anaconda <https://www.anaconda.com/products/individual>`__,
 then follow instructions `here <https://docs.anaconda.com/anaconda/user-guide/getting-started/>`__.
@@ -45,13 +45,13 @@ If install to an existing environment::
 
     conda install -c conda-forge algotom
 
-or::
+or:
 
 	conda install -c algotom algotom
 
 If install to a new environment::
 
-    conda create -n algotom python>=3.7
+    conda create -n algotom python=3.10
     conda activate algotom
     conda install -c conda-forge algotom
 
@@ -68,7 +68,7 @@ If install to an existing environment::
 
 If install to a new environment::
 
-    conda create -n algotom python>=3.7
+    conda create -n algotom python=3.10
     conda activate algotom
     pip install algotom
 
@@ -83,7 +83,7 @@ Download and install `Miniconda  <https://docs.conda.io/en/latest/miniconda.html
 
 Open Linux terminal or Miniconda/Anaconda Powershell prompt and run the following commands::
 
-    conda create -n algotom python>=3.7
+    conda create -n algotom python=3.10
     conda activate algotom
     cd algotom
     python setup.py install

docs/source/toc/section5/section5_2.rst

@@ -581,7 +581,7 @@ proceed to the next step of performing a full reconstruction.
         t1 = time.time()
         print(f"All done in {t1 - t0}s!")
 
-Complete Python scripts for the each of above workflow are available `here <https://github.com/algotom/algotom/tree/master/examples/vertical_reconstruction>`__.
+Complete Python scripts for the each of above workflow are available `here <https://github.com/algotom/algotom/tree/master/examples/direct_vertical_slice_reconstruction>`__.
 
 As the method processes data chunk-by-chunk and incurs significant I/O overhead, users can adjust the size of each chunk
 to optimize computing time. For context, below is the elapsed time for reconstructing vertical slices of a
@@ -604,5 +604,3 @@ mirror features across the middle line of the image.
         :figclass: align-center
 
         Appearance of ring artifacts in a vertical slice.
-
-

docs/source/toc/section6.rst

@@ -58,3 +58,15 @@ Update notes
 - 26/04/2024:
 
     + Add back-projection filtering (BPF) method.
+    + Update method for processing slices of 3D array in parallel.
+    + Move "find_center_based_slice_metric" and "find_center_based_slice_metric" from utility.py
+      to reconstruction.py
+
+- 06/05/2024:
+
+    + Add module **vertrec.py** for direct vertical slice reconstructions: single slice, multiple slices, and multiple
+      slices at different orientations; and methods for finding the center of rotation using vertical slices.
+    + Add demos for vertical reconstruction.
+    + Add technical note on implementations of direct vertical-slice reconstruction for tomography.
+    + Enable parallel computing for image-stitching-related methods in calculation.py module
+    + Add "sharpness" metric to "find_center_based_slice_metric" method.