Figure 2

Screenshots of different backgrounds representing data layers. Representative patch backgrounds depicting endogenous gut flora population (brown patches), mucous barrier (yellow patches), epithelial cell tight junctions (violet patches) and epithelial cells (blue GECs on white background). Shading of background color reflects quantitative changes in specific variables (e.g. mucous, endogenous flora, tight junctions). Pseudomonas agents (red pentagons) move to survey microenvironments while epithelial cells (blue squares) modify local conditions in response to host stress. This feature of the ABM aids in initial code development to visually identify encoded behaviors, provides visual reinforcement of expected model behavior and facilitates the use of visual intuition to identify patterns and behaviors that might not be evident in purely tabular data output.