# 10. astec_atlas¶

astec_atlas can be used to assess the quality/coherency of a set of already named ascidian embryos (or atlases) as well to point out potential corrections. It assumes that the set (or mathematically speaking the vector) of valued surface contact of a named cell can be used as its signature.

## 10.1. astec_atlas additional options¶

The following options are available:

-write-selection, --write-selection

write out morphonet selection files

## 10.2. astec_atlas principle¶

Eg, the cell $$c^{R}_i$$ (the cell $$c_i$$ of atlas $$R$$) is represented by the vector $$c^{R}_i = \left( \begin{array}{c} s^{R}_{i,1} \\ \vdots \\ s^{R}_{i,j} \\ \vdots \end{array} \right)$$.

To account for size differences (between embryos, or between time points within an embryo), normalized surface contact vector should be used for computation (parameter cell_normalization, see section Atlas parameters). A distance between cells comes to a L1 distance between two vectors.

From the cell-to-cell distance, a division-to-division similarity can be built, a division being represented by the couple of daughter cells (extracted at the distance delay_from_division from the division).

To enrich division exemplars, the symmetric division (of the other hemi-embryo) can be symmetrized (ie a7.0002_ will be changed in a7.0002*). This is governed by add_symmetric_neighborhood.

Thus, to assess the quality of a set of atlases, a typical parameter file may be

atlasFiles = []
atlasFiles += ['/path_to_reference_embryos/Astec-pm1.pkl']
atlasFiles += ['/path_to_reference_embryos/Astec-pm3.pkl']
atlasFiles += ['/path_to_reference_embryos/Astec-pm4.pkl']
atlasFiles += ['/path_to_reference_embryos/Astec-pm5.pkl']
atlasFiles += ['/path_to_reference_embryos/Astec-pm7.pkl']
atlasFiles += ['/path_to_reference_embryos/Astec-pm8.pkl']
atlasFiles += ['/path_to_reference_embryos/Astec-pm9.pkl']
#
# how to select cells
#
use_common_neighborhood = True
delay_from_division = 3
#
# how to compute distances
#
cell_normalization = 'global'
#
# how to extract/display information
#
atlas_diagnosis = True
division_diagnosis = True
division_permutation_proposal = True
generate_figure = True
figurefile_suffix = 'some_suffix'

• atlas_diagnosis and division_diagnosismay be quite verbose. It may be adviced to set them to True when introducing a new atlas, but not when using a set of already curated atlases. Two kinds of diagnosis are conducted.

• atlas_diagnosis

• on each single atlas/reference file, the name and the contact properties are assessed. Such diagnosis can also be conducted with astec_embryoproperties (see section astec_embryoproperties)

• on the population of division neighborhoods:

• division_diagnosis

• pairwise disagreements: for a given cell and every couple of reference embryos, the distance of the two divisions (one per reference) is compared to the distance of one division compared to the other being switched. If the later is prefered, it is denoted as a disagreement.

• linkage/dendrogram analysis: it is checked whether adding the switched divisions to the set of divisions changes the largest value of cluster distance in a dendrogram. If yes, it also suggest that some divisions may be switched. Individualized morphonet selection files are written (if write_selection is set to True) in the outputDir directory.

• division_permutation_proposal may propose to switch the daughter names of some divisions. It calculates whether a name switch result in a global score improvement, and, if so, proposes the switch. It is somehow computationally costly. Individualized morphonet selection files are written (if write_selection is set to True) in the outputDir directory.

• generate_figure will generate python files (in the outputDir directory) that, when executed, generates some figures. It is somehow computationally costly.

Section astec_atlas parameters provides a view on all the parameters.