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DAx Data Acquisition and Data Analysis
            

Use of colour maps in DAx

  DAx uses coloured maps (or colour views) in several instances where the use of colour as a third dimension leads to improved understanding of data.
Colour views can be exported as bitmaps (to the clipboard or to file), exported as line drawings, printed, and included in reports.

Colour views of trace data

Colour views display curve data as coloured maps, reminiscent of (slab) gel plates.

The image below shows a colour view of 11 data files, with 3 traces in each file displayed (ROX - red, FAM - green, and HEX - blue),

colour view

These files could also have been displayed as overlapping curves, or as stacked curves, but the colour view affords a much better overview. For instance, it is readily seen that the A02 and A10 files have substantial HEX peaks around 150 base pairs.
The colour view makes it easy to find coordinates where all traces have corresponding peaks, and conversely, to find coordinates where only some of the traces have peaks.

Colour view display options

Colour views offer a number of display options:
  • Insert space between lanes (yields a less crowded image).
  • Use trace colours (shown). Each trace is displayed using its own colour. The alternative is to map all values to a single colour scale, comparable to a topographical height map.
  • Subtract baselines.
  • Show each trace in its own lane, or combine traces from a single file into a single lane (shown).
  • Display using a calibrated (base pair) axis (shown).


Binning maps

DAx has the ability to create binning sheets with massive amounts of data. When such a sheet is presented in text form, it far exceeds the capacity of even large computer screens.
By colour coding the information, it is possible to achieve a better overview. The binning map is created by representing each bin with a coloured dot; the colour of the dot corresponds to the extent of expression in the bin.
When you move the mouse over a binning map, the corresponding area of the binning sheet is brought into view. Right clicking displays a popup menu which can be used to display the pertinent area in the source trace data.

binning sheet presented as binning map

The binning map makes it easy to find fully populated as well as sparsely populated bins.