Row-Column Design

This vignette shows how to generate a row-column Design using both the FielDHub Shiny App and the scripting function row_column() from the FielDHub package.

Resolvable Row-Column Design (Two-Step Optimization)

It randomly generates a resolvable row-column design.The design is optimized in both rows and columns blocking factors. The randomization can be done across multiple locations.

Overview

The Row-Column design in FielDHub is built in two stages. The first step constructs the blocking factor Columns using Incomplete Block Units from an incomplete block design that sets the number of incomplete blocks as the number of Columns in the design, each of which has a dimension equal to the number of Rows. Once this design is generated, the Rows are used as the Row blocking factor that is optimized for A-Efficiency, but levels within the original Columns are fixed. To optimize the Rows while maintaining the current optimized Columns, we use a heuristic algorithm that swaps at random treatment positions within a given Column (Block) also selected at random. The algorithm begins by calculating the A-Efficiency on the initial design, performs a swap iteration, recalculates the A-Efficiency on the resulting design, and compares it with the previous one to decide whether to keep or discard the new design. This iterative process is repeated, by default, 1000 times.

1. Using the FielDHub Shiny App

To generate a Row-Column Design using the FielDHub app:

First, go to Other Designs > Resolvable Row-Column Design (RRCD)

Then, follow the following steps where we will show how to generate a Row-Column Design with 45 treatments, 5 rows and 3 reps.

Inputs

Import entries’ list? Choose whether to import a list with entry numbers and names for genotypes or treatments.
- If the selection is No, that means the app is going to generate synthetic data for entries and names of the treatment based on the user inputs.
- If the selection is Yes, the entries list must fulfill a specific format and must be a .csv file. The file must have the columns ENTRY and NAME. The ENTRY column must have a unique entry integer number for each treatment. The column NAME must have a unique name that identifies each treatment. Both ENTRY and NAME must be unique, duplicates are not allowed. In the following table, we show an example of the entries list format. This example has an entry list with 12 treatments.

ENTRY	NAME
1	GenotypeA
2	GenotypeB
3	GenotypeC
4	GenotypeD
5	GenotypeE
6	GenotypeF
7	GenotypeG
8	GenotypeH
9	GenotypeI
10	GenotypeJ
11	GenotypeK
12	GenotypeL

Input the number of treatments in the Input # of Treatments box. We will enter 45 for our sample experiment.
Set the number of plots in each incomplete block with the Input # of Plots per IBlock box. In this examples, set it to 5.
Select the number of replications of these treatments with the Input # of Full Reps box. In this examples, set it to 3.
Enter the number of locations in Input # of Locations. We will run this experiment over a single location, so set it to 1.
Select serpentine or cartesian in the Plot Order Layout. For this example we will use the default serpentine layout.
Enter the starting plot number in the Starting Plot Number box. If the experiment has multiple locations, you must enter a comma separated list of numbers the length of the number of locations for the input to be valid. Set it to 101.
Enter a name for the location of the experiment in the Input Location box. If there are multiple locations, each name must be in a comma separated list. For this example, set it to "FARGO".
To ensure that randomizations are consistent across sessions, we can set a random seed in the box labeled random seed. In this example, we will set it to 1244.
Once we have entered the information for our experiment on the left side panel, click the Run! button to run the design.

Outputs

After you run a row-column design in FielDHub, there are several ways to display the information contained in the field book.

Field Layout

When you first click the run button on a row-column design, FielDHub displays the Field Layout tab, which shows the entries and their arrangement in the field. In the box below the display, you can change the layout of the field. You can also display a heatmap over the field by changing Type of Plot to Heatmap. To view a heatmap, you must first simulate an experiment over the described field with the Simulate! button. A pop-up window will appear where you can enter what variable you want to simulate along with minimum and maximum values.

Field Book

The Field Book displays all the information on the experimental design in a table format. It contains the specific plot number and the row and column address of each entry, as well as the corresponding treatment on that plot. This table is searchable, and we can filter the data in relevant columns. If we have simulated data for a heatmap, an additional column for that variable appears in the field book.

2. Using the `FielDHub` function: `row_column()`

You can run the same design with a function in the FielDHub package, row_column().

First, you need to load the FielDHub package by typing

library(FielDHub)

Then, you can enter the information describing the above design like this:

rcd <- row_column(
  t = 45,
  nrows = 5,
  r = 3,
  l = 1, 
  plotNumber = 101, 
  locationNames = "FARGO",
  seed = 1244
)

Details on the inputs entered in `row_column()` above

The description for the inputs that we used to generate the design,

t = 45 is the number of treatments.
nrows = 5 is the number of rows.
r=3 is the number of reps
l = 1 is the number of locations.
plotNumber = 101 is the starting plot number.
locationNames = "FARGO" is an optional name for each location.
seed = 1244 is the random seed to replicate identical randomizations.

Print `rcd` object

To print a summary of the information that is in the object rcd, we can use the generic function print().

print(rcd)

Resolvable Row-Column Design (Two-Step Optimization) 

Efficiency of design: 
   Level Blocks D-Efficiency A-Efficiency   A-Bound
1    Rep      3    1.0000000    1.0000000 1.0000000
2    Row     15    0.8940506    0.8767037 0.8842892
3 Column     27    0.7912636    0.7625093 0.7674419

Information on the design parameters: 
List of 7
 $ rows          : num 5
 $ columns       : num 9
 $ reps          : num 3
 $ treatments    : num 45
 $ locations     : num 1
 $ location_names: chr "FARGO"
 $ seed          : num 1244

 10 First observations of the data frame with the row_column field book: 
   ID LOCATION PLOT REP ROW COLUMN ENTRY TREATMENT
1   1    FARGO  101   1   1      1     6       G-6
6   2    FARGO  102   1   1      2    34      G-34
11  3    FARGO  103   1   1      3    10      G-10
16  4    FARGO  104   1   1      4    26      G-26
21  5    FARGO  105   1   1      5    20      G-20
26  6    FARGO  106   1   1      6    15      G-15
31  7    FARGO  107   1   1      7    13      G-13
36  8    FARGO  108   1   1      8    28      G-28
41  9    FARGO  109   1   1      9    41      G-41
2  10    FARGO  110   1   2      1    42      G-42

Access to `rcd` object

The row_column() function returns a list consisting of all the information displayed in the output tabs in the FielDHub app: design information, plot layout, plot numbering, entries list, and field book. These are accessible by the $ operator, i.e. rcd$layoutRandom or rcd$fieldBook.

rcd$fieldBook is a list containing information about every plot in the field, with information about the location of the plot and the treatment in each plot. As seen in the output below, the field book has columns for ID, LOCATION, PLOT, REP, ROW, COLUMN, ENTRY, and TREATMENT.

field_book <- rcd$fieldBook
head(rcd$fieldBook, 10)

   ID LOCATION PLOT REP ROW COLUMN ENTRY TREATMENT
1   1    FARGO  101   1   1      1     6       G-6
6   2    FARGO  102   1   1      2    34      G-34
11  3    FARGO  103   1   1      3    10      G-10
16  4    FARGO  104   1   1      4    26      G-26
21  5    FARGO  105   1   1      5    20      G-20
26  6    FARGO  106   1   1      6    15      G-15
31  7    FARGO  107   1   1      7    13      G-13
36  8    FARGO  108   1   1      8    28      G-28
41  9    FARGO  109   1   1      9    41      G-41
2  10    FARGO  110   1   2      1    42      G-42

Plot the field layout

For plotting the layout in function of the coordinates ROW and COLUMN, you can use the the generic function plot() as follows,

plot(rcd)