locomotion 1.0.0

Computational geometric tools for quantitative comparison of locomotory behavior

Locomotion - Quantitative Comparisons of Locomotive Behavior

locomotion is a Python package that provides computational geometric tools for quantitative comparisons of locomotive behaviors. The package makes use of curve and shape alignment techniques to accurately quantify (dis)similarities in animal behavior without excluding inherent variability present between individuals.

For more information on the techniques implemented in this repository, please read our publication.

Table of Contents

• Getting Started
  • Installation and Requirements
• Data Format
  • File Format
  • Header Format
  • Information File Format
• Using the Package
• Contributing
• Versioning
• Authors
• Citation
• License
• Acknowledgments

Getting Started

To begin using the locomotion package, please follow the installation instructions below. After the package has been successfully installed, please proceed to the Data Format section to understand how your data should be formatted for use.

Installation and Requirements

As of 24 January 2020, the locomotion package has been converted for use on Python 3.7.3. This module also requires the following python packages:

• numpy (>= 1.16.2)
• scipy (>= 1.5.0)
• plotly (>= 4.4.1)
• dtw-python (>= 1.1.4)
• igl (>=2.2.0)

Installation instructions

The locomotion package is available for installation on PyPI, which can be done by running the following command on your terminal:

pip install locomotion

Another installation option is to install it from the source directory directly. Once you've cloned the directory or downloaded the source file, run the following command while in the main directory.

python setup.py install

Note: One of our dependencies, igl, is still in development phase, and is not currently on PyPI. You will have to install it manually in order to use locomotion. You may find the installation instructions here.

After installing all the requirements, you should now be able to run import locomotion in your Python shell.

Checking the installation

To ensure that all the functions in the package work as intended, run the jupyter notebook scripts/example_notebook.ipynb. Follow through the notebook, which will run through the basic functions of the package. If the package is installed properly, it should be able to generate a small sample dataset and run the BDD and CSD methods on it.

Data Format

File Format

The package accepts .csv and .tsv files. However, because it distinguishes between tsv and csv by doing a simple check to see if tabs or commas are present in the first (header) line, make sure to avoid using both delimiters in the header of your data file. If your data must use both, you will need to edit the get_raw_data function in animal.py.

Header Format

The computations require X and Y coordinate data with corresponding column titles in string format, so the coordinate data columns must be labelled "X" and "Y", including the quotation marks. They can also be single quotes.

Information File Format

The information about the animals are stored in a json file, which is required to read in relevant data for each computation. The fields and format are as in this sample entry below. Note that all times are in minutes. In general, avoid using spaces in the field values.

{
        "name": "NSS_01", //Can be anything. Make it unique
        "data_file_location": "/data/medaka/NSS_01.dat",
        //full path to the data file
        "animal_attributes": {
            "species": "Medaka", //species name
            "exp_type": "NSS", //experiment type
            "ID": "01" //number, but in quotations
        },
        "capture_attributes": {
            "frames_per_sec": 20, //integer
            "pixels_per_mm": 1.6, //float
            "dim_x": 200, //in mm
            "dim_y": 100, //in mm
            "start_time": 0, //in min
            "end_time": 10, //in min
            "baseline_start_time": 0, //in min
            "baseline_end_time": 2 //in min
        }
    }

To generate the info file, you can make use of scripts/json_generator.ipynb which contains a step-by-step walkthrough that populates a .json file, prompting you to include the correct data.

Using the Package

Once you import the locomotion package, you will need to first initiate animal objects using the locomotion.setup_animal_objs command, which returns a list of animal objects with basic X and Y data from the data files.

The routines for calculating Behavioral Distortion Distance (BDD) are located in the trajectory.py file and can be called by locomotion.trajectory.[routine_name].

Example script:

import locomotion
info_files = ["/path/to/animal_info.json"]
animals = locomotion.setup_animal_objs( info_files )
for a in animals:
  locomotion.trajectory.populate_curve_data( a )
variables = ['Y','Velocity','Curvature']
start_time, end_time = 0, 1
norm_mode = 'spec'
distances = locomotion.trajectory.compute_all_bdd( animals, variables, start_time, end_time, norm_mode )
output_directory, outfile_name = "/path/to/outdir", "results"
sort_table, square_table = False, False
color_min, color_max = 0.1, 0.5
locomotion.write.post_process( animals, distances, output_directory, outfile_name, sort_table, square_table, color_min, color_max )

To calculate the Intra-Individual Behavioral Distortion Distance (IIBDD) for each animal in a specified info sheet, one can run a script like the following:

import locomotion
info_files = ["/path/to/animal_info.json"]
animals = locomotion.setup_animal_objs( info_files )
for a in animals:
  locomotion.trajectory.populate_curve_data( a )
variables = ['Y','Velocity','Curvature']
norm_mode = 'spec'
number_of_samples = 100
output_directory, outfile_name = "/path/to/outdir", "results.csv"
start_time, end_time = 0, 1
iibdds = locomotion.trajectory.compute_all_iibdd( animals, variables, norm_mode, number_of_samples, start_time=start_time, end_time=end_time )
locomotion.write.write_iibdd_to_csv( animals, iibdds, output_directory, outfile_name )

The routines for calculating Conformal Spatiotemporal Distance (CSD) are located in the heatmap.py file and can be called by locomotion.heatmap.[routine_name].

Example script:

import locomotion
info_files = ["/path/to/animal_info.json"]
animals = locomotion.setup_animal_objs( info_files )
grid_size, start_time, end_time = 10, 0, 2
for a in animals:
  locomotion.heatmap.populate_surface_data( a, grid_size, start_time, end_time )
distances = locomotion.heatmap.compute_all_csd( animals )
output_directory, outfile_name = "/path/to/outdir", "results"
sort_table, square_table = False, False
color_min, color_max = 0, 0.2
locomotion.write.post_process( animals, distances, output_directory, outfile_name, sort_table, square_table, color_min, color_max )

Contributing

Please read CONTRIBUTING.md for details on our code of conduct, and the process for submitting pull requests to us.

Versioning

We use SemVer for versioning. For the versions available, see the tags on this repository.

Authors

This package was written by Matthew T. Stamps, Zhong Xuan Khwa, Elaine Wijaya, Soo Go, and Ajay S. Mathuru.

See also the list of contributors who participated in this project.

Citation

If you use locomotion in a scientific paper, we would appreciate citations to the following paper:

Stamps, M.T., Go, S. & Mathuru, A.S. Computational geometric tools for quantitative comparison of locomotory behavior. Sci Rep 9, 16585 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-019-52300-8

Preferred citation format can be found here.

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License - see the LICENSE.md file for details

Acknowledgments

We would like to acknowledge the work of Alaukik Pant, Haroun Chahed, Karolina Grzeszkiewicz, Katherine Sun, Lucy Zhu, Sultan Aitzhan, and Yanhua Wang, for their contributions to this package.

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