This tutorial is automatically generated from the file trunk/cell_based/test/tutorial/TestRunningNodeBasedSimulationsTutorial.hpp at revision r14532. Note that the code is given in full at the bottom of the page.
Examples showing how to create, run and visualize node-based simulations
Introduction
In this tutorial we show how Chaste can be used to create, run and visualize node-based simulations. Full details of the mechanical model can be found in Pathamathan et al "A computational study of discrete mechanical tissue models", Physical Biology. Vol. 6. No. 3. 2009.. DOI (10.1088/1478-3975/6/3/036001).
The test
As in previous cell-based Chaste tutorials (UserTutorials/RunningMeshBasedSimulations), we begin by including the necessary header files.
#include <cxxtest/TestSuite.h>
#include "CheckpointArchiveTypes.hpp"
The following header is usually included in all cell-based test suites. It enables us to write tests where the SimulationTime is handled automatically and simplifies the tests.
#include "AbstractCellBasedTestSuite.hpp"
The remaining header files define classes that will be used in the cell population simulation test. We encountered some of these header files in UserTutorials/RunningMeshBasedSimulations.
#include "CellsGenerator.hpp"
#include "StochasticDurationCellCycleModel.hpp"
#include "HoneycombMeshGenerator.hpp"
#include "GeneralisedLinearSpringForce.hpp"
#include "OffLatticeSimulation.hpp"
#include "SmartPointers.hpp"
The next header file defines the class for storing the spatial information of cells.
#include "NodesOnlyMesh.hpp"
The next header file defines a node-based CellPopulation class.
#include "NodeBasedCellPopulation.hpp"
The next header file defines a boundary condition to be used in the third test.
#include "SphereGeometryBoundaryCondition.hpp"
Next, we define the test class. This time we inherit from AbstractCellBasedTestSuite rather than CxxTest::TestSuite. When using this class the singleton objects are set up and destroyed for us: SimulationTime is initialised to zero at the beginning of the test and destroyed at the end of the test; RandomNumberGenerator is re-seeded with zero at the begining and destroyed at the end of the test; and CellPropertyRegistry (which stores CellProperties, you learn about these in a later tutorial UserTutorials/CreatingAndUsingANewCellProperty) is cleared at the beginning of the test. This makes for cleaner code.
class TestRunningNodeBasedSimulationsTutorial : public AbstractCellBasedTestSuite { public:
Test 1 - a basic node-based simulation
In the first test, we run a simple node-based simulation, in which we create a monolayer of cells, using a nodes only mesh. Each cell is assigned a stochastic cell-cycle model.
void TestMonolayer() throw(Exception) {
We no longer need to set up the start time as this is fone in the AbstractCellBasedTestSuite. The first thing we do is generate a nodes only mesh. To do this we first create a MutableMesh to use as a generating mesh. To do this we can use the HoneycombMeshGenerator. This generates a honeycomb-shaped mesh, in which all nodes are equidistant. Here the first and second arguments define the size of the mesh - we have chosen a mesh that is 2 nodes (i.e. cells) wide, and 2 nodes high.
HoneycombMeshGenerator generator(2, 2); MutableMesh<2,2>* p_generating_mesh = generator.GetMesh();
Once we have a MutableMesh we can generate a NodesOnlyMesh from it using the following commands. Note you can also generate the NodesOnlyMesh from a collection of nodes, see NodesOnlyMesh for details.
NodesOnlyMesh<2>* p_mesh = new NodesOnlyMesh<2>; p_mesh->ConstructNodesWithoutMesh(*p_generating_mesh);
Having created a mesh, we now create a std::vector of CellPtrs. To do this, we the CellsGenerator helper class, which is templated over the type of cell model required (here StochasticDurationCellCycleModel) and the dimension. We create an empty vector of cells and pass this into the method along with the mesh. The second argument represents the size of that the vector cells should become - one cell for each node, the third argument specifies the proliferative type of the cell STEM, TRANSIT or DIFFERENTIATED.
std::vector<CellPtr> cells; CellsGenerator<StochasticDurationCellCycleModel, 2> cells_generator; cells_generator.GenerateBasicRandom(cells, p_mesh->GetNumNodes(),TRANSIT);
Now we have a mesh and a set of cells to go with it, we can create a CellPopulation. In general, this class associates a collection of cells with a mesh. For this test, because we have a NodesOnlyMesh, we use a particular type of cell population called a NodeBasedCellPopulation.
NodeBasedCellPopulation<2> cell_population(*p_mesh, cells);
To run node-based simulations you need to define a cut off length, which defines the connectivity of the nodes by defining a radius of interaction.
cell_population.SetMechanicsCutOffLength(1.5);
We then pass in the cell population into an OffLatticeSimulation, and set the output directory, output multiple and end time.
OffLatticeSimulation<2> simulator(cell_population); simulator.SetOutputDirectory("NodeBasedMonolayer"); simulator.SetSamplingTimestepMultiple(12); simulator.SetEndTime(10.0);
We now pass a force law to the simulation.
MAKE_PTR(GeneralisedLinearSpringForce<2>, p_force); simulator.AddForce(p_force);
To run the simulation, we call Solve().
simulator.Solve();
We conclude by deleting any pointers that we created in the test to avoid memory leaks.
delete p_mesh; }
To visualize the results, open a new terminal, cd to the Chaste directory, then cd to anim. Then do: java Visualize2dVertexCells /tmp/$USER/testoutput/NodeBasedMonolayer/results_from_time_0. we need to select the 'Cells as circles` option to be able to visualise the cells, as opposed to just the centres. We may have to do: javac Visualize2dVertexCells.java beforehand to create the java executable.
Test 2 - a basic node-based simulation in 3d
In the second test we run a simple node-based simulation in 3D. This is very similar to the 2D test with the dimension template (<2,2> and <2>) changed from 2 to 3 and instead of using a mesh generator we generate the nodes directly.
void TestSpheroid() throw(Exception) {
First, we generate a nodes only mesh. This time we specify the nodes manually by first creating a vector of nodes.
std::vector<Node<3>*> nodes;
We then create some nodes to add to this vector.
nodes.push_back(new Node<3>(0u, false, 0.5, 0.0, 0.0)); nodes.push_back(new Node<3>(1u, false, -0.5, 0.0, 0.0)); nodes.push_back(new Node<3>(2u, false, 0.0, 0.5, 0.0)); nodes.push_back(new Node<3>(3u, false, 0.0, -0.5, 0.0));
Finally a NodesOnlyMesh is created and the vector of nodes is passed to the ConstructNodesWithoutMesh method.
NodesOnlyMesh<3> mesh; mesh.ConstructNodesWithoutMesh(nodes);
Having created a mesh, we now create a std::vector of CellPtrs. As before, we do this with the CellsGenerator helper class (this time with dimension 3).
std::vector<CellPtr> cells; CellsGenerator<StochasticDurationCellCycleModel, 3> cells_generator; cells_generator.GenerateBasicRandom(cells, mesh.GetNumNodes(),TRANSIT);
We make a NodeBasedCellPopulation (this time with dimension 3) as before and define the cut off length.
NodeBasedCellPopulation<3> cell_population(mesh, cells); cell_population.SetMechanicsCutOffLength(1.5);
We then pass in the cell population into an OffLatticeSimulation, (this time with dimension 3) and set the output directory, output multiple and end time.
OffLatticeSimulation<3> simulator(cell_population); simulator.SetOutputDirectory("NodeBasedSpheroid"); simulator.SetSamplingTimestepMultiple(12); simulator.SetEndTime(10.0);
Again we create a force law (this time with dimension 3), and pass it to the OffLatticeSimulation.
MAKE_PTR(GeneralisedLinearSpringForce<3>, p_force); simulator.AddForce(p_force);
To run the simulation, we call Solve().
simulator.Solve();
To avoid memory leaks, we conclude by deleting any pointers that we created in the test.
for (unsigned i=0; i<nodes.size(); i++) { delete nodes[i]; } }
To visualize the results, use Paraview. See the UserTutorials/VisualizingWithParaview tutorial for more information.
Load the file /tmp/$USER/testoutput/NodeBasedSpheroid/results_from_time_0/results.pvd, and add spherical glyphs to represent cells.
Test 3 - a node-based simulation on a restricted geometry
In the third test we run a node-based simulation restricted to the surface of a sphere.
void TestOnSurfaceOfSphere() throw(Exception) {
We begin with exactly the same code as the previous test: we create a cell population from a mesh and vector of cells, and use this in turn to create a simulation object.
std::vector<Node<3>*> nodes; nodes.push_back(new Node<3>(0u, false, 0.5, 0.0, 0.0)); nodes.push_back(new Node<3>(1u, false, -0.5, 0.0, 0.0)); nodes.push_back(new Node<3>(2u, false, 0.0, 0.5, 0.0)); nodes.push_back(new Node<3>(3u, false, 0.0, -0.5, 0.0)); NodesOnlyMesh<3> mesh; mesh.ConstructNodesWithoutMesh(nodes); std::vector<CellPtr> cells; CellsGenerator<StochasticDurationCellCycleModel, 3> cells_generator; cells_generator.GenerateBasicRandom(cells, mesh.GetNumNodes(),TRANSIT); NodeBasedCellPopulation<3> cell_population(mesh, cells); cell_population.SetMechanicsCutOffLength(1.5); OffLatticeSimulation<3> simulator(cell_population); simulator.SetOutputDirectory("NodeBasedOnSphere"); simulator.SetSamplingTimestepMultiple(12); simulator.SetEndTime(10.0);
As before, we create a linear spring force and pass it to the simulation object.
MAKE_PTR(GeneralisedLinearSpringForce<3>, p_force); simulator.AddForce(p_force);
This time we create a CellPopulationBoundaryCondition and pass this to the OffLatticeSimulation. Here we use a SphereGeometryBoundaryCondition which restricts cells to lie on a sphere (in 3D) or circle (in 2D).
For a list of possible boundary conditions see subclasses of AbstractCellPopulationBoundaryCondition. These can be found in the inheritance diagram, here, AbstractCellPopulationBoundaryCondition. Note that some of these boundary conditions are not compatible with node-based simulations see the specific class documentation for details, if you try to use an incompatible class then you will receive a warning.
First we set the centre (0,0,1) and radius of the sphere (1).
c_vector<double,3> centre = zero_vector<double>(3); centre(2) = 1.0; double radius = 1.0;
We then make a pointer to the boundary condition using the MAKE_PTR_ARGS macro, and pass it to the OffLatticeSimulation.
MAKE_PTR_ARGS(SphereGeometryBoundaryCondition<3>, p_boundary_condition, (&cell_population, centre, radius)); simulator.AddCellPopulationBoundaryCondition(p_boundary_condition);
To run the simulation, we call Solve().
simulator.Solve();
To avoid memory leaks, we conclude by deleting any pointers that we created in the test.
for (unsigned i=0; i<nodes.size(); i++) { delete nodes[i]; } }
To visualize the results, use Paraview. See the UserTutorials/VisualizingWithParaview tutorial for more information.
Load the file /tmp/$USER/testoutput/NodeBasedOnSphere/results_from_time_0/results.pvd, and add spherical glyphs to represent cells.
};
Code
The full code is given below
File name TestRunningNodeBasedSimulationsTutorial.hpp
#include <cxxtest/TestSuite.h> #include "CheckpointArchiveTypes.hpp" #include "AbstractCellBasedTestSuite.hpp" #include "CellsGenerator.hpp" #include "StochasticDurationCellCycleModel.hpp" #include "HoneycombMeshGenerator.hpp" #include "GeneralisedLinearSpringForce.hpp" #include "OffLatticeSimulation.hpp" #include "SmartPointers.hpp" #include "NodesOnlyMesh.hpp" #include "NodeBasedCellPopulation.hpp" #include "SphereGeometryBoundaryCondition.hpp" class TestRunningNodeBasedSimulationsTutorial : public AbstractCellBasedTestSuite { public: void TestMonolayer() throw(Exception) { HoneycombMeshGenerator generator(2, 2); MutableMesh<2,2>* p_generating_mesh = generator.GetMesh(); NodesOnlyMesh<2>* p_mesh = new NodesOnlyMesh<2>; p_mesh->ConstructNodesWithoutMesh(*p_generating_mesh); std::vector<CellPtr> cells; CellsGenerator<StochasticDurationCellCycleModel, 2> cells_generator; cells_generator.GenerateBasicRandom(cells, p_mesh->GetNumNodes(),TRANSIT); NodeBasedCellPopulation<2> cell_population(*p_mesh, cells); cell_population.SetMechanicsCutOffLength(1.5); OffLatticeSimulation<2> simulator(cell_population); simulator.SetOutputDirectory("NodeBasedMonolayer"); simulator.SetSamplingTimestepMultiple(12); simulator.SetEndTime(10.0); MAKE_PTR(GeneralisedLinearSpringForce<2>, p_force); simulator.AddForce(p_force); simulator.Solve(); delete p_mesh; } void TestSpheroid() throw(Exception) { std::vector<Node<3>*> nodes; nodes.push_back(new Node<3>(0u, false, 0.5, 0.0, 0.0)); nodes.push_back(new Node<3>(1u, false, -0.5, 0.0, 0.0)); nodes.push_back(new Node<3>(2u, false, 0.0, 0.5, 0.0)); nodes.push_back(new Node<3>(3u, false, 0.0, -0.5, 0.0)); NodesOnlyMesh<3> mesh; mesh.ConstructNodesWithoutMesh(nodes); std::vector<CellPtr> cells; CellsGenerator<StochasticDurationCellCycleModel, 3> cells_generator; cells_generator.GenerateBasicRandom(cells, mesh.GetNumNodes(),TRANSIT); NodeBasedCellPopulation<3> cell_population(mesh, cells); cell_population.SetMechanicsCutOffLength(1.5); OffLatticeSimulation<3> simulator(cell_population); simulator.SetOutputDirectory("NodeBasedSpheroid"); simulator.SetSamplingTimestepMultiple(12); simulator.SetEndTime(10.0); MAKE_PTR(GeneralisedLinearSpringForce<3>, p_force); simulator.AddForce(p_force); simulator.Solve(); for (unsigned i=0; i<nodes.size(); i++) { delete nodes[i]; } } void TestOnSurfaceOfSphere() throw(Exception) { std::vector<Node<3>*> nodes; nodes.push_back(new Node<3>(0u, false, 0.5, 0.0, 0.0)); nodes.push_back(new Node<3>(1u, false, -0.5, 0.0, 0.0)); nodes.push_back(new Node<3>(2u, false, 0.0, 0.5, 0.0)); nodes.push_back(new Node<3>(3u, false, 0.0, -0.5, 0.0)); NodesOnlyMesh<3> mesh; mesh.ConstructNodesWithoutMesh(nodes); std::vector<CellPtr> cells; CellsGenerator<StochasticDurationCellCycleModel, 3> cells_generator; cells_generator.GenerateBasicRandom(cells, mesh.GetNumNodes(),TRANSIT); NodeBasedCellPopulation<3> cell_population(mesh, cells); cell_population.SetMechanicsCutOffLength(1.5); OffLatticeSimulation<3> simulator(cell_population); simulator.SetOutputDirectory("NodeBasedOnSphere"); simulator.SetSamplingTimestepMultiple(12); simulator.SetEndTime(10.0); MAKE_PTR(GeneralisedLinearSpringForce<3>, p_force); simulator.AddForce(p_force); c_vector<double,3> centre = zero_vector<double>(3); centre(2) = 1.0; double radius = 1.0; MAKE_PTR_ARGS(SphereGeometryBoundaryCondition<3>, p_boundary_condition, (&cell_population, centre, radius)); simulator.AddCellPopulationBoundaryCondition(p_boundary_condition); simulator.Solve(); for (unsigned i=0; i<nodes.size(); i++) { delete nodes[i]; } } };