code: def readPhenoFile(pfile,idx=None):
      
      reading in phenotype file
  
      pfile   root of the file containing the phenotypes as NxP matrix
              (N=number of samples, P=number of traits)
      """
  
      usecols = None
      if idx!=None:
          """ different traits are comma-seperated """
          usecols = [int(x) for x in idx.split(',')]
          
      phenoFile = pfile+'.phe'
      assert os.path.exists(phenoFile), '%s is missing.'%phenoFile
      Y = SP.loadtxt(phenoFile,usecols=usecols)
      if (usecols is not None) and (len(usecols)==1): Y = Y[:,SP.newaxis]
          
      Y -= Y.mean(0); Y /= Y.std(0)
      return Y
docs: reading in phenotype file
  
      pfile   root of the file containing the phenotypes as NxP matrix
              (N=number of samples, P=number of traits)