PeacoQC-RS

PeacoQC-RS is a Rust implementation of PeacoQC (Peak-based Quality Control) algorithms for flow cytometry data. This library provides efficient, trait-based quality control methods that work with any FCS data structure through a simple trait interface.

Core Features

Peak Detection: Automatic peak detection using kernel density estimation
Isolation Forest: Outlier detection using isolation tree method
MAD Outlier Detection: Median Absolute Deviation-based outlier identification
Margin Event Removal: Detection and removal of margin events
Doublet Detection: Identification of doublet/multiplet events
Monotonic Channel Detection: Detection of channels with monotonic trends (indicating technical issues)
Consecutive Bins Filtering: Removal of short consecutive regions
Trait-Based Design: Works with any data structure via PeacoQCData trait

Installation

Add this to your Cargo.toml:

[dependencies]
peacoqc-rs = { path = "../peacoqc-rs", version = "0.3.0", features = ["flow-fcs"] }

Or from crates.io (when published):

[dependencies]
peacoqc-rs = { version = "0.3.0", features = ["flow-fcs"] }

Feature Flags

flow-fcs (default): Enable integration with the flow-fcs crate for FCS file support
gpu: Enable GPU acceleration for multi-channel datasets (20-32x speedup for batched operations)
cubecl: Enable cubeCL custom GPU kernels (optional, requires gpu feature)

Quick Start

Basic Usage

use peacoqc_rs::{PeacoQCConfig, PeacoQCData, QCMode, peacoqc};

// Assuming you have an FCS struct that implements PeacoQCData
let config = PeacoQCConfig {
    channels: vec!["FL1-A".to_string(), "FL2-A".to_string()],
    determine_good_cells: QCMode::All,
    ..Default::default()
};

let result = peacoqc(&fcs, &config)?;

// Apply the `good_cells` boolean mask from the PeacoQCResult struct
let clean_fcs = fcs.filter(&result.good_cells)?;

println!("Removed {:.2}% of events", result.percentage_removed);

// Export QC results for downstream analysis
result.export_csv_boolean("qc_results.csv")?;
result.export_json_metadata(&config, "qc_metadata.json")?;

See examples/basic_usage.rs for a complete working example.

`flow-fcs` convenience

With the flow-fcs feature enabled:

PeacoQCConfig::for_fcs(&flow_fcs::Fcs, QCMode) fills channels from fluorescence parameters on the Fcs (same notion as auto-detecting analysis channels from the file).
create_qc_plots (module qc::plots) can write overview figures for manual review when given the FCS, the PeacoQCResult, an output path, and a QCPlotConfig.
PeacoQCResult::export_json_metadata writes run metadata (percentages, bin counts, etc.) alongside CSV exports.

Interoperability via Traits

PeacoQC-RS uses trait-based design for maximum interoperability. To use PeacoQC with your own FCS data structure, simply implement the PeacoQCData trait:

use peacoqc_rs::{PeacoQCData, Result};

struct MyFcs {
    // your data fields
}

impl PeacoQCData for MyFcs {
    fn n_events(&self) -> usize {
        // return number of events
    }

    fn channel_names(&self) -> Vec<String> {
        // return channel names
    }

    fn get_channel_range(&self, channel: &str) -> Option<(f64, f64)> {
        // return channel range if available
    }

    fn get_channel_f64(&self, channel: &str) -> Result<Vec<f64>> {
        // return channel data as Vec<f64>
    }
}

Additionally, implement FcsFilter to enable filtering:

use peacoqc_rs::{FcsFilter, Result};

impl FcsFilter for MyFcs {
    fn filter(&self, mask: &[bool]) -> Result<Self> {
        // return a new instance with filtered data
    }
}

Integration with flow-fcs

If you enable the flow-fcs feature flag, PeacoQC-RS provides trait implementations for the Fcs struct provided by it:

use flow_fcs::Fcs;
use peacoqc_rs::{PeacoQCConfig, QCMode, peacoqc};

let fcs = Fcs::open("data.fcs")?;

let config = PeacoQCConfig {
    channels: fcs.get_fluorescence_channels(), // Auto-detect channels
    determine_good_cells: QCMode::All,
    ..Default::default()
};

let result = peacoqc(&fcs, &config)?;
// Apply the `good_cells` boolean mask from the PeacoQCResult struct
let clean_fcs = fcs.filter(&result.good_cells)?;

API Overview

Main Functions

fn peacoqc<T: PeacoQCData>(fcs: &T, config: &PeacoQCConfig) -> Result<PeacoQCResult>

Main quality control function that runs the complete PeacoQC pipeline
Processes channels and bins in parallel for optimal performance

fn remove_margins<T: PeacoQCData>(fcs: &T, config: &MarginConfig) -> Result<MarginResult>

Remove margin events from FCS data

fn remove_doublets<T: PeacoQCData>(fcs: &T, config: &DoubletConfig) -> Result<DoubletResult>

Detect and remove doublet/multiplet events

Configuration

PeacoQCConfig: Main configuration for quality control (now with builder pattern)
- channels: Channels to analyze
- determine_good_cells: QC mode (All, IsolationTree, MAD, None)
- mad: MAD threshold (default: 6.0)
- it_limit: Isolation Tree limit (default: 0.6)
- consecutive_bins: Consecutive bins threshold (default: 5)
- kde_bandwidth_adjust: KDE bandwidth scaling (default: 1.0) - NEW
- kde_grid_points: KDE grid resolution (default: 512) - NEW
- cluster_distance_threshold: Peak clustering threshold (default: None) - NEW

Builder pattern usage:

use peacoqc_rs::PeacoQCConfig;

let config = PeacoQCConfig::builder()
    .channels(vec!["FL1-A".to_string(), "FL2-A".to_string()])
    .kde_bandwidth_adjust(1.2)  // Tune for smoother peaks
    .kde_grid_points(1024)       // Higher precision
    .build()
    .unwrap();

MarginConfig: Configuration for margin event removal
DoubletConfig: Configuration for doublet detection

Results

PeacoQCResult: Complete QC results
- good_cells: Boolean mask (true = keep, false = remove)
- removal_reason_per_bin: Optional per-bin removal reason (Isolation Tree, MAD, Consecutive) for plotting
- percentage_removed: Percentage of events removed
- peaks: Peak detection results per channel
- n_bins: Number of bins used
- events_per_bin: Events per bin
- export_csv_boolean(): Export as boolean CSV (0/1 values)
- export_csv_numeric(): Export as numeric CSV (2000/6000 values, R-compatible)
- export_json_metadata(): Export comprehensive QC metrics as JSON
RemovalReason: Enum for why a bin was flagged (Isolation Tree, MAD, Consecutive); used when plotting removal reasons

Export Formats

PeacoQC-RS supports multiple export formats for QC results, enabling integration with various downstream analysis tools.

Boolean CSV (Recommended)

Export QC results as a CSV file with 0/1 values:

result.export_csv_boolean("qc_results.csv")?;

Format:

PeacoQC
1
1
0
1

1 = good event (keep)
0 = bad event (remove)

Use cases:

pandas: df[df['PeacoQC'] == 1]
R: df[df$PeacoQC == 1, ]
SQL: WHERE PeacoQC = 1
General data analysis workflows

Numeric CSV (R-Compatible)

Export QC results as a CSV file with numeric codes matching the R PeacoQC package:

result.export_csv_numeric("qc_results_r.csv", 2000, 6000)?;

Format:

PeacoQC
2000
2000
6000
2000

2000 (or custom good_value) = good event (keep)
6000 (or custom bad_value) = bad event (remove)

Use cases:

Compatibility with existing R PeacoQC workflows
FlowJo CSV import
Legacy analysis pipelines

JSON Metadata

Export comprehensive QC metrics and configuration as JSON:

result.export_json_metadata(&config, "qc_metadata.json")?;

Format:

{
  "n_events_before": 713904,
  "n_events_after": 631400,
  "n_events_removed": 82504,
  "percentage_removed": 11.56,
  "it_percentage": 0.0,
  "mad_percentage": 11.56,
  "consecutive_percentage": 0.0,
  "n_bins": 1427,
  "events_per_bin": 500,
  "channels_analyzed": ["FL1-A", "FL2-A"],
  "config": {
    "qc_mode": "All",
    "mad": 6.0,
    "it_limit": 0.6,
    "consecutive_bins": 5,
    "remove_zeros": false
  }
}

Use cases:

Programmatic access to QC metrics
Reporting and documentation
Provenance tracking
Quality control dashboards

Custom Column Names

You can specify custom column names for CSV exports:

result.export_csv_boolean_with_name("qc_results.csv", "QC_Status")?;
result.export_csv_numeric_with_name("qc_results_r.csv", 2000, 6000, "PeacoQC_Status")?;

Quality Control Methods

1. Peak Detection

Uses kernel density estimation (KDE) with Gaussian kernels to detect peaks in binned data. Peaks are identified using Silverman's rule for bandwidth selection.

2. Isolation Tree

An isolation forest-based outlier detection method. Events in bins with low isolation scores are flagged as outliers.

3. MAD (Median Absolute Deviation)

Detects outliers using the median absolute deviation method. Events exceeding a MAD threshold are flagged.

4. Consecutive Bins Filtering

Removes short consecutive regions that may represent artifacts rather than real biological populations.

5. Monotonic Channel Detection

Detects channels with monotonic trends (increasing or decreasing) which may indicate technical problems:

Increasing: Possible accumulation, clog developing
Decreasing: Possible depletion, pressure loss

Uses kernel smoothing (matching R's stats::ksmooth with bandwidth=50) to smooth bin medians, then checks if smoothed values satisfy monotonicity conditions using cummax/cummin. Channels are flagged if >75% of smoothed values are non-decreasing (increasing) or non-increasing (decreasing). This matches the original R implementation's algorithm.

Performance

PeacoQC-RS is optimized for performance:

Parallel Processing: Uses rayon for parallel computation:
- Multiple channels processed in parallel (all channels simultaneously)
- Multiple bins within each channel processed in parallel
- Provides significant speedup on multi-core systems (typically 2-8x depending on core count)
GPU Acceleration (optional, --features gpu): Provides 20-32x speedup for batched multi-channel operations
- Automatically used when GPU is available
- Batched operations amortize GPU overhead across multiple channels
- See DEV_NOTES.md for detailed performance results
Efficient Data Structures: Uses Polars DataFrames (via flow-fcs feature flag) for columnar storage
Minimal Allocations: Optimized to reduce memory allocations
SIMD Support: Leverages Polars' SIMD operations for fast numeric computations

Benchmarks

Run benchmarks with:

cargo bench --bench peacoqc_bench

Benchmarks are currently being developed and will provide performance metrics for various dataset sizes.

Test Coverage

The library includes comprehensive unit tests covering:

Peak detection accuracy
Isolation tree outlier detection
MAD outlier identification
Margin event removal
Doublet detection
Monotonic channel detection
Statistical functions (median, MAD, density estimation)

Run tests with:

cargo test

Examples

Basic Usage Example

See examples/basic_usage.rs for a complete example demonstrating:

Creating synthetic FCS data
Removing margin events
Removing doublets
Running full PeacoQC analysis
Applying the quality control filter

Run with:

cargo run --example basic_usage

Error Handling

All functions return Result<T, PeacoQCError>. The PeacoQCError enum covers:

InvalidChannel: Invalid or non-numeric channel
ChannelNotFound: Channel not found in data
InsufficientData: Not enough events for analysis
StatsError: Statistical computation failed
ConfigError: Configuration error
NoPeaksDetected: No peaks detected in data
PolarsError: Polars DataFrame error (when using flow-fcs feature)

License

MIT License - see LICENSE file for details

Attribution

This Rust implementation is based on the original PeacoQC algorithm and R package. We gratefully acknowledge the original authors:

Original Paper:

Emmaneel, A., Quintelier, K., Sichien, D., Rybakowska, P., Marañón, C., Alarcón-Riquelme, M. E., Van Isterdael, G., Van Gassen, S., & Saeys, Y. (2022). PeacoQC: Peak-based selection of high quality cytometry data. Cytometry A, 101(4), 325-338. https://doi.org/10.1002/cyto.a.24501

Original R Implementation:

GitHub: https://github.com/saeyslab/PeacoQC
Authors: Annelies Emmaneel, Katrien Quintelier, and the Saeys Lab

This Rust version provides:

Improved performance through native compilation
Better memory efficiency
Type safety
Trait-based extensibility

R Compatibility & Known Differences

All default configuration parameters match the R package exactly (MAD=6, IT_limit=0.6, consecutive_bins=5, etc.). However, numerical results may differ slightly (typically 0.9–6.85%) due to implementation differences in algorithms that don't have a single canonical specification.

Sources of Differences (in Order of Impact)

1. Kernel Density Estimation (KDE) – Main Source of Peak Detection Differences

What differs: R's KDE implementation vs. Rust's FFT-based KDE
Impact: Peak detection can differ by 1–7% of events
Why it matters: Small differences in peak positions → different cluster assignments → different feature matrix for Isolation Tree
No config knob available: KDE uses Silverman's rule of thumb (same as R); differences are algorithmic, not parametric

2. Spline Smoothing in MAD Detection

What differs: R's smooth.spline() vs. Rust's Gaussian kernel smoothing approximation
Impact: Affects MAD threshold calculation and detection sensitivity
Typical difference: <2% of events removed
Available config: MADConfig::smooth_param (default: 0.5, matching R's spar=0.5)
If you see large MAD differences: Try adjusting smooth_param (lower = less smoothing, higher = more smoothing)

3. Peak Clustering Logic

What differs: When multiple peaks are detected, clustering algorithm may assign peaks to clusters slightly differently
Impact: Feature matrix structure differs → Isolation Tree results vary
Typical difference: Small number of bins flagged differently
No config knob available: Clustering uses deterministic median-based assignment; differences are numerical precision

4. Floating-Point Precision & Accumulation

What differs: Different order of operations in calculations
Impact: Typically <1% in most metrics
Affected by: GPU acceleration (if enabled), FFT implementations
How to minimize: Use the same data types and preprocessing as R (32-bit float data, same compensation/transformation)

Preprocessing: Critical for Matching R Results

The preprocessing order is critical for reproducibility:

// Recommended preprocessing order (matching R's PeacoQC):
let fcs = fcs.open("data.fcs")?;

// Step 1: Remove margins (on raw data)
let margin_config = MarginConfig { /* ... */ };
let fcs = fcs.filter(&remove_margins(&fcs, &margin_config)?.mask)?;

// Step 2: Remove doublets (on raw data)
let doublet_config = DoubletConfig::default();
let fcs = fcs.filter(&remove_doublets(&fcs, &doublet_config)?.mask)?;

// Step 3: Apply compensation + transformation (new data)
let fcs = preprocess_fcs(fcs, true, true, 2000.0)?;

// Now run PeacoQC on preprocessed data
let config = PeacoQCConfig {
    apply_compensation: false,  // Already applied above
    apply_transformation: false,
    ..Default::default()
};
let result = peacoqc(&fcs, &config)?;

Why this matters: Margin/doublet removal thresholds are calculated on raw values. Applying transformation first changes these thresholds and produces different results than the R package.

Debugging Discrepancies

To identify the source of differences:

Compare bin structure first (fastest check):

# Should match exactly if preprocessing is identical
Rust: result.n_bins, result.events_per_bin
R: result$nr_bins, result$EventsPerBin

Enable debug logging to see per-bin details:

PEACOQC_DEBUG_BINS=1 PEACOQC_DEBUG_SPLINE=1 your_app

Compare removal percentages by method (shows which step differs):
- Check it_percentage (Isolation Tree) separately from mad_percentage (MAD)
- If IT matches but MAD differs → spline smoothing or KDE is the source
- If both match but consecutive filter differs → numerical precision in edge cases
Check if GPU acceleration is active:
- Disable GPU: WGPU_BACKEND=gl or rebuild without --features gpu
- GPU differences are typically <0.5% and more deterministic if using same batch sizes

Test Results: Validation Against R

Rust implementation tested against R on real FCS datasets:

Metric	Expected Match	Observed Range
Bin count (`n_bins`)	Exact	100% match
Events per bin	Exact	100% match
Isolation Tree results	Perfect or minor	3/4 files perfect, 1/4 minor differences
MAD results	Very close	0.90–6.85% difference
Final event removal	Very close	<5% difference typical
IT + MAD combined	Very close	<3% difference typical

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please feel free to open issues or submit a Pull Request on Github.

peacoqc-rs 0.3.0

PeacoQC-RS

Core Features

Installation

Feature Flags

Quick Start

Basic Usage

flow-fcs convenience

Interoperability via Traits

Integration with flow-fcs

API Overview

Main Functions

Configuration

Results

Export Formats

Boolean CSV (Recommended)

Numeric CSV (R-Compatible)

JSON Metadata

Custom Column Names

Quality Control Methods

1. Peak Detection

2. Isolation Tree

3. MAD (Median Absolute Deviation)

4. Consecutive Bins Filtering

5. Monotonic Channel Detection

Performance

Benchmarks

Test Coverage

Examples

Basic Usage Example

Error Handling

License

Attribution

R Compatibility & Known Differences

Sources of Differences (in Order of Impact)

1. Kernel Density Estimation (KDE) – Main Source of Peak Detection Differences

2. Spline Smoothing in MAD Detection

3. Peak Clustering Logic

4. Floating-Point Precision & Accumulation

Preprocessing: Critical for Matching R Results

Debugging Discrepancies

Test Results: Validation Against R

Contributing

`flow-fcs` convenience