--- title: "An Introduction to polarisR" output: rmarkdown::html_vignette vignette: > %\VignetteIndexEntry{An Introduction to polarisR} %\VignetteEngine{knitr::rmarkdown} %\VignetteEncoding{UTF-8} --- ## Introduction Welcome to the `polarisR`..... This document provides a comprehensive guide to use the `polarisR`. We will walk through each tab of the application, explaining the features and functionalities available to help you explore and understand your high-dimensional data.

What does polarisR stand for?

projective output layouts and reduced interactive surfaces in R

## Application Overview The polarisR interface is organized into **five main tabs**, each designed for specific aspects of your data analysis workflow: 1. **Dataset Preview** - Load and explore your data, select columns, and manage datasets 2. **Non-linear dimension reduction (NLDR)** - Apply NLDR methods (t-SNE/UMAP) with parameter configuration and visualization 3. **Dynamic Tour** - Explore high-dimensional structure through animated projections 4. **Diagnosing** - Assess embedding quality using quantitative methods 5. **2-D Layout Comparison** - Compare different NLDR configurations and results Each tab builds upon the previous ones, creating a comprehensive workflow from data loading to advanced comparative analysis. Let's explore each tab in detail. ## Dataset Preview Tab The **Dataset Preview** tab is the starting point of your analysis. Here, you can load your data, select relevant columns, and get a quick overview of your dataset. Dataset Preview Tab **Features**: * **Upload Dataset:** You can upload your own dataset in CSV format using the "Upload Dataset" button. The application will automatically validate the file and handle potential errors. * **Example Datasets:** `polarisR` comes with two pre-loaded datasets: `four_clusters` and `pdfsense`. You can select any of these to explore the application's features without needing your own data. ```r # Access the datasets directly data(four_clusters, package = "polarisR") data(pdfsense, package = "polarisR") # View dataset information ?four_clusters ?pdfsense ``` **Dataset Descriptions:** * **four_clusters**: A synthetic dataset with four distinct clusters, perfect for testing clustering visualization * **pdfsense**: A high-energy physics dataset representing parton distribution function fits **Additional Features:** * **Column Selection:** After loading a dataset, you can choose which columns to include in the NLDR analysis. By default, all columns are selected. You can manually select or deselect columns and apply the changes. * **Data Preview:** A table displays the first few rows of your dataset, allowing you to inspect the data and ensure it has been loaded correctly. * **Dataset Information:** This section provides a summary of your dataset, including the number of rows, columns, and the types of columns (numeric or categorical). * **NLDR Datasets:** As you run different NLDR analyses, the results will be stored and listed here. You can easily switch between different results to compare them. ## Non-linear dimension reduction (NLDR) Tab The **Non-linear dimension reduction (NLDR)** tab is where the main NLDR analysis happens. You can choose between t-SNE and UMAP, configure their parameters, and visualize the results. Dataset Visualization Tab **Features**: * **Choose Method:** Select either `t-SNE` or `UMAP` as your NLDR method. * **t-SNE Parameters:** * **Perplexity:** Adjust the perplexity value, which influences the number of nearest neighbors for each point. * **Max Iterations:** Set the maximum number of iterations for the t-SNE algorithm. * **Auto-adjust perplexity:** Let the application automatically choose a suitable perplexity value based on your data. The formula used is: `perplexity = max(5, min(30, floor(n_samples / 3) - 1))`, which ensures perplexity is between 5 and 30, and scales with dataset size to maintain effective neighborhood structure. * **UMAP Parameters:** * **Number of Neighbors:** Control the size of the local neighborhood UMAP will use. * **Min. Distance:** Set the minimum distance between embedded points. * **Color Options:** Choose a column from your dataset to color the points in the visualization. This is useful for identifying clusters or patterns. * **Reproducibility Options:** Set a random seed to ensure that your NLDR results are reproducible. * **Run Visualization:** Click this button to start the NLDR computation. The progress will be displayed, and the resulting visualization will be shown on the right. * **Visualization Information:** This panel displays the parameters used for the current visualization, making it easy to track your experiments. ## Dynamic Tour Tab The **Dynamic Tour** tab offers an interactive way to explore the high-dimensional space of your data. It provides a dynamic projection of the data, which can be viewed as a scatter plot, sage plot, or slice plot. Dynamic Tour Tab **Features**: * **Select Tour Display:** Choose from three types of dynamic tours: * **Scatter:** A standard scatter plot of the projected data. * **Sage:** A scatter plot display that adjusts for the projected volume, defined in [Laa et al. (2021)](https://doi.org/10.1080/10618600.2021.1963264). * **Slice:** A scatter plot display that highlights points close to the projection plane, defined in [Laa et al. (2020)](https://doi.org/10.1080/10618600.2020.1777140). * **Tour Options:** * **Show Axes:** Toggle the visibility of the axes in the tour plot. * **Show Wireframe:** Toggle the visibility of wireframe edges in the tour plot for enhanced structural visualization. * **Point Opacity (Alpha):** Adjust the transparency of the points. * **Gamma (for Sage):** Control the effective dimensionality parameter for the sage plot. * **Slice Relative Volume (for Slice):** Adjust the thickness of the slice. * **Enable Linked Brushing:** When enabled, you can select points in the NLDR plot, and the corresponding points will be highlighted in the dynamic tour plot, and vice-versa. This is a powerful feature for exploring the relationship between the low-dimensional embedding and the original high-dimensional data. ## Diagnosing Tab The **Diagnosing** tab provides tools to assess the selected NLDR layout. It uses the [`quollr` package] (https://github.com/JayaniLakshika/quollr) to perform a quantitative analysis of the NLDR layout and helps you to find the optimal binwidth for the model fitting. **Features**: * **Binwidth Optimization:** This feature automatically tests a range of bin widths for the `quollr` analysis and finds the optimal configuration based on the Root Mean Square Error (RMSE). * **Run Quollr Analysis:** After optimizing the binwidth, you can run the full `quollr` analysis to get a detailed assessment of your embedding. * **Analysis Results:** The results of the analysis are presented in several tabs: * **RMSE vs Binwidth:** An interactive plot showing the RMSE for different binwidth values. RMSE vs Binwidth * **Model Summary:** A table with the detailed results of the binwidth optimization. Optimization Table * **Model Error:** A visualization shows the NLDR layout, with points colored according to the high-dimensional model error. Model Fit * **Configuration & Summary:** This section displays the optimal binwidth configuration and a summary of the `quollr` model fit. ## 2-D Layout Comparison Tab The **2-D Layout Comparison** tab allows you to compare the results of different NLDR layouts. You can compare different methods (t-SNE vs. UMAP) or the same method with different hyper-parameters. **Features**: * **Choose Comparison Type:** * **NLDR Settings Comparison:** Compare the RMSE of different NLDR configurations. This is useful for finding the best method and hyper-parameters for your data. NLDR Settigns Comparison * **Side-by-Side Visualization:** Display two NLDR plots next to each other for a direct visual comparison. Side bySide Visualization * **Enable Linked Brushing:** In the side-by-side visualization mode, you can enable linked brushing to select points in one plot and see the corresponding points highlighted in the other. Linking Brushing * **Dataset Selection:** Select the NLDR results you want to compare from the list of stored results. * **Run Comparison Plot:** Generate the comparison plot based on your selection. * **Best Configuration Summary:** When comparing NLDR settings, this section will show you the best configuration found based on the RMSE.