The Cost-Effectiveness of Monitoring Strategies for Antiretroviral Therapy of HIV Infected Patients in Resource-Limited Settings: Software Tool.

BACKGROUND The cost-effectiveness of routine viral load (VL) monitoring of HIV-infected patients on antiretroviral therapy (ART) depends on various factors that differ between settings and across time. Low-cost point-of-care (POC) tests for VL are in development and may make routine VL monitoring affordable in resource-limited settings. We developed a software tool to study the cost-effectiveness of switching to second-line ART with different monitoring strategies, and focused on POC-VL monitoring. METHODS We used a mathematical model to simulate cohorts of patients from start of ART until death. We modeled 13 strategies (no 2nd-line, clinical, CD4 (with or without targeted VL), POC-VL, and laboratory-based VL monitoring, with different frequencies). We included a scenario with identical failure rates across strategies, and one in which routine VL monitoring reduces the risk of failure. We compared lifetime costs and averted disability-adjusted life-years (DALYs). We calculated incremental cost-effectiveness ratios (ICER). We developed an Excel tool to update the results of the model for varying unit costs and cohort characteristics, and conducted several sensitivity analyses varying the input costs. RESULTS Introducing 2nd-line ART had an ICER of US$1651-1766/DALY averted. Compared with clinical monitoring, the ICER of CD4 monitoring was US$1896-US$5488/DALY averted and VL monitoring US$951-US$5813/DALY averted. We found no difference between POC- and laboratory-based VL monitoring, except for the highest measurement frequency (every 6 months), where laboratory-based testing was more effective. Targeted VL monitoring was on the cost-effectiveness frontier only if the difference between 1st- and 2nd-line costs remained large, and if we assumed that routine VL monitoring does not prevent failure. CONCLUSION Compared with the less expensive strategies, the cost-effectiveness of routine VL monitoring essentially depends on the cost of 2nd-line ART. Our Excel tool is useful for determining optimal monitoring strategies for specific settings, with specific sex-and age-distributions and unit costs.

Qualitative operational risk software -development of a software tool for determining the root of operational risk

This article shows software that allows determining the statistical behavior of qualitative data originating surveys previously transformed with a Likert’s scale to quantitative data. The main intention is offer to users a useful tool to know statistics' characteristics and forecasts of financial risks in a fast and simple way. Additionally,this paper presents the definition of operational risk. On the other hand, the article explains different techniques to do surveys with a Likert’s scale (Avila, 2008) to know expert’s opinion with the transformation of qualitative data to quantitative data. In addition, this paper will show how is very easy to distinguish an expert’s opinion related to risk, but when users have a lot of surveys and matrices is very difficult to obtain results because is necessary to compare common data. On the other hand, statistical value representative must be extracted from common data to get weight of each risk. In the end, this article exposes the development of “Qualitative Operational Risk Software” or QORS by its acronym, which has been designed to determine the root of risks in organizations and its value at operational risk OpVaR (Jorion, 2008; Chernobai et al, 2008) when input data comes from expert’s opinion and their associated matrices.

Software tool for simulation of aircraft trajectories

New concepts in air navigation have been introduced recently. Among others, are the concepts of trajectory optimization, 4D trajectories, RBT (Reference Business Trajectory), TBO (trajectory based operations), CDA (Continuous Descent Approach) and ACDA (Advanced CDA), conflict resolution, arrival time (AMAN), introduction of new aircraft (UAVs, UASs) in air space, etc. Although some of these concepts are new, the future Air Traffic Management will maintain the four ATM key performance areas such as Safety, Capacity, Efficiency, and Environmental impact. So much, the performance of the ATM system is directly related to the accuracy with which the future evolution of the traffic can be predicted. In this sense, future air traffic management will require a variety of support tools to provide suitable help to users and engineers involved in the air space management. Most of these tools are based on an appropriate trajectory prediction module as main component. Therefore, the purposes of these tools are related with testing and evaluation of any air navigation concept before they become fully operative. The aim of this paper is to provide an overview to the design of a software tool useful to estimate aircraft trajectories adapted to air navigation concepts. Other usage of the tool, like controller design, vertical navigation assessment, procedures validation and hardware and software in the loop are available in the software tool. The paper will show the process followed to design the tool, the software modules needed to perform accurately and the process followed to validate the output data.

JRNL: Journal Retention and Needs Listing — A Software Tool for Managing Print Journal Archives

The Journal Retention and Needs Listing (JRNL) program: 1) allows libraries to expose lists of print journals for which they have made retention commitments; 2) express needs (or gaps) in their holdings; and 3) communicate offers to fill the gaps in other participating libraries’ holdings. Multiple library consortia and their member libraries use JRNL to facilitate communication between library staff to identify holding commitments, fill gaps, and guide deselection decisions. JRNL is commonly developed and governed by the participating consortia. Currently, those consortia are the Florida Academic Repository (FLARE), the Association of Southeastern Research Libraries (ASERL)/Washington Research Library Consortium (WRLC), and the Western Regional Storage Trust (WEST).

A software tool for accurate assessment of costs and CO2 emissions in wood transport using OpenStreetMap©

Costs and environmental impacts are key elements in forest logistics and they must be integrated in forest decision-making. The evaluation of transportation fuel costs and carbon emissions depend on spatial and non-spatial data but in many cases the former type of data are dicult to obtain. On the other hand, the availability of software tools to evaluate transportation fuel consumption as well as costs and emissions of carbon dioxide is limited. We developed a software tool that combines two empirically validated models of truck transportation using Digital Elevation Model (DEM) data and an open spatial data tool, specically OpenStreetMap©. The tool generates tabular data and spatial outputs (maps) with information regarding fuel consumption, cost and CO2 emissions for four types of trucks. It also generates maps of the distribution of transport performance indicators (relation between beeline and real road distances). These outputs can be easily included in forest decision-making support systems. Finally, in this work we applied the tool in a particular case of forest logistics in north-eastern Portugal

A software tool that generates symbolic model verifier (SMV) input language from a predicate transition net

The purpose of this research was to apply model checking by using a symbolic model checker on Predicate Transition Nets (PrT Nets). A PrT Net is a formal model of information flow which allows system properties to be modeled and analyzed. The aim of this thesis was to use the modeling and analysis power of PrT nets to provide a mechanism for the system model to be verified. Symbolic Model Verifier (SMV) was the model checker chosen in this thesis, and in order to verify the PrT net model of a system, it was translated to SMV input language. A software tool was implemented which translates the PrT Net into SMV language, hence enabling the process of model checking. The system includes two parts: the PrT net editor where the representation of a system can be edited, and the translator which converts the PrT net into an SMV program.

DesignWorld : a tool for team collaboration in high band virtual environments

Current software tools for documenting and developing models of buildings focus on supporting a single user who is a specialist in the specific software used within their own discipline. Extensions to these tools for use by teams maintain the single discipline view and focus on version and file management. There is a perceived need in industry to have tools that specifically support collaboration among individuals from multiple disciplines with both a graphical representation of the design and a persistent data model. This project involves the development of a prototype of such a software tool. We have identified multi-user 3D virtual worlds as an appropriate software base for the development of a collaborative design tool. These worlds are inherently multi-user and therefore directly support collaboration through a sense of awareness of others in the virtual world, their location within the world, and provide various channels for direct and indirect communication. Such software platforms also provide a 3D building and modelling environment that can be adapted to the needs of the building and construction industry. DesignWorld is a prototype system for collaborative design developed by augmenting the Second Life (SL) commercial software platform1 with a collection web-based tools for communication and design. Agents manage communication between the 3D virtual world and the web-based tools. In addition, agents maintain a persistent external model of designs in the 3D world which can be augmented with data such as relationships, disciplines and versions not usually associated with 3D virtual worlds but required in design scenarios.

Elicitator : an expert elicitation tool for regression in ecology

Expert elicitation is the process of retrieving and quantifying expert knowledge in a particular domain. Such information is of particular value when the empirical data is expensive, limited, or unreliable. This paper describes a new software tool, called Elicitator, which assists in quantifying expert knowledge in a form suitable for use as a prior model in Bayesian regression. Potential environmental domains for applying this elicitation tool include habitat modeling, assessing detectability or eradication, ecological condition assessments, risk analysis, and quantifying inputs to complex models of ecological processes. The tool has been developed to be user-friendly, extensible, and facilitate consistent and repeatable elicitation of expert knowledge across these various domains. We demonstrate its application to elicitation for logistic regression in a geographically based ecological context. The underlying statistical methodology is also novel, utilizing an indirect elicitation approach to target expert knowledge on a case-by-case basis. For several elicitation sites (or cases), experts are asked simply to quantify their estimated ecological response (e.g. probability of presence), and its range of plausible values, after inspecting (habitat) covariates via GIS.

CAT Detect (Computer Activity Timeline Detection) : a tool for detecting inconsistency in computer activity timelines

The construction of timelines of computer activity is a part of many digital investigations. These timelines of events are composed of traces of historical activity drawn from system logs and potentially from evidence of events found in the computer file system. A potential problem with the use of such information is that some of it may be inconsistent and contradictory thus compromising its value. This work introduces a software tool (CAT Detect) for the detection of inconsistency within timelines of computer activity. We examine the impact of deliberate tampering through experiments conducted with our prototype software tool. Based on the results of these experiments, we discuss techniques which can be employed to deal with such temporal inconsistencies.

Armchair or Zigzag? A tool for characterizing graphene edge

Electronic, magnetic, and structural properties of graphene flakes depend sensitively upon the type of edge atoms. We present a simple software tool for determining the type of edge atoms in a honeycomb lattice. The algorithm is based on nearest neighbor counting. Whether an edge atom is of armchair or zigzag type is decided by the unique pattern of its nearest neighbors. Particular attention is paid to the practical aspects of using the tool, as additional features such as extracting out the edges from the lattice could help in analyzing images from transmission microscopy or other experimental probes. Ultimately, the tool in combination with density-functional theory or tight-binding method can also be helpful in correlating the properties of graphene flakes with the different armchair-to-zigzag ratios. Program summary Program title: edgecount Catalogue identifier: AEIA_v1_0 Program summary URL: http://cpc.cs.qub.ac.uk/summaries/AEIA_v1_0.html Program obtainable from: CPC Program Library, Queen's University, Belfast, N. Ireland Licensing provisions: Standard CPC licence, http://cpc.cs.qub.ac.uk/licence/licence.html No. of lines in distributed program, including test data, etc.: 66685 No. of bytes in distributed program, including test data, etc.: 485 381 Distribution format: tar.gz Programming language: FORTRAN 90/95 Computer: Most UNIX-based platforms Operating system: Linux, Mac OS Classification: 16.1, 7.8 Nature of problem: Detection and classification of edge atoms in a finite patch of honeycomb lattice. Solution method: Build nearest neighbor (NN) list; assign types to edge atoms on the basis of their NN pattern. Running time: Typically similar to second(s) for all examples. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

CHEXVIS: a tool for molecular channel extraction and visualization

Background: Understanding channel structures that lead to active sites or traverse the molecule is important in the study of molecular functions such as ion, ligand, and small molecule transport. Efficient methods for extracting, storing, and analyzing protein channels are required to support such studies. Further, there is a need for an integrated framework that supports computation of the channels, interactive exploration of their structure, and detailed visual analysis of their properties. Results: We describe a method for molecular channel extraction based on the alpha complex representation. The method computes geometrically feasible channels, stores both the volume occupied by the channel and its centerline in a unified representation, and reports significant channels. The representation also supports efficient computation of channel profiles that help understand channel properties. We describe methods for effective visualization of the channels and their profiles. These methods and the visual analysis framework are implemented in a software tool, CHEXVIS. We apply the method on a number of known channel containing proteins to extract pore features. Results from these experiments on several proteins show that CHEXVIS performance is comparable to, and in some cases, better than existing channel extraction techniques. Using several case studies, we demonstrate how CHEXVIS can be used to study channels, extract their properties and gain insights into molecular function. Conclusion: CHEXVIS supports the visual exploration of multiple channels together with their geometric and physico-chemical properties thereby enabling the understanding of the basic biology of transport through protein channels. The CHEXVIS web-server is freely available at http://vgl.serc.iisc.ernet.in/chexvis/. The web-server is supported on all modern browsers with latest Java plug-in.

Herramienta software para el análisis de rendimiento de redes 4G

[ES]El objetivo de este proyecto ha sido desarrollar una herramienta software que permita medir el rendimiento de redes con tecnología móvil 4G, también conocida como LTE. Para ello se ha creado un sistema software que está compuesto por una aplicación móvil y un servidor de aplicaciones. El sistema en conjunto realiza la función de recoger indicadores de calidad de la red móvil de diversa índole, que posteriormente son procesados utilizando herramientas software matemáticas, para así obtener gráficas y mapas que permiten analizar la situación y el rendimiento de una red 4G concreta. El desarrollo del software ha llegado a nivel de prototipo y se han realizado pruebas reales con él obteniendo resultados positivos de funcionamiento.

Advanced evacuation simulation software and its use in warships

The newly formed Escape and Evacuation Naval Authority regulates the provision of abandonment equipment and procedures for all Ministry of Defence Vessels. As such, it assures that access routes on board are evaluated early in the design process to maximize their efficiency and to eliminate, as far as possible, any congestion that might occur during escape. This analysis can be undertaken using a computer-based simulation for given escape scenarios and replicates the layout of the vessel and the interactions between each individual and the ship structure. One such software tool that facilitates this type of analysis is maritimeEXODUS. This tool, through large scale testing and validation, emulates human shipboard behaviour during emergency scenarios; however it is largely based around the behaviour of civilian passengers and fixtures and fittings of merchant vessels. Hence there existed a clear requirement to understand the behaviour of well-trained naval personnel as opposed to civilian passengers and be able to model the fixtures and fittings that are exclusive to warships, thus allowing improvements to both maritimeEXODUS and other software products. Human factor trials using the Royal Navy training facilities at Whale Island, Portsmouth were recently undertaken to collect data that improves our understanding of the aforementioned differences. It is hoped that this data will form the basis of a long-term improvement package that will provide global validation of these simulation tools and assist in the development of specific Escape and Evacuation standards for warships. © 2005: Royal Institution of Naval Architects.

Benchmarking therapeutic drug monitoring software: A review of available computer tools

Therapeutic drug monitoring (TDM) aims to optimize treatments by individualizing dosage regimens based on the measurement of blood concentrations. Dosage individualization to maintain concentrations within a target range requires pharmacokinetic and clinical capabilities. Bayesian calculations currently represent the gold standard TDM approach but require computation assistance. In recent decades computer programs have been developed to assist clinicians in this assignment. The aim of this survey was to assess and compare computer tools designed to support TDM clinical activities. The literature and the Internet were searched to identify software. All programs were tested on personal computers. Each program was scored against a standardized grid covering pharmacokinetic relevance, user friendliness, computing aspects, interfacing and storage. A weighting factor was applied to each criterion of the grid to account for its relative importance. To assess the robustness of the software, six representative clinical vignettes were processed through each of them. Altogether, 12 software tools were identified, tested and ranked, representing a comprehensive review of the available software. Numbers of drugs handled by the software vary widely (from two to 180), and eight programs offer users the possibility of adding new drug models based on population pharmacokinetic analyses. Bayesian computation to predict dosage adaptation from blood concentration (a posteriori adjustment) is performed by ten tools, while nine are also able to propose a priori dosage regimens, based only on individual patient covariates such as age, sex and bodyweight. Among those applying Bayesian calculation, MM-USC*PACK© uses the non-parametric approach. The top two programs emerging from this benchmark were MwPharm© and TCIWorks. Most other programs evaluated had good potential while being less sophisticated or less user friendly. Programs vary in complexity and might not fit all healthcare settings. Each software tool must therefore be regarded with respect to the individual needs of hospitals or clinicians. Programs should be easy and fast for routine activities, including for non-experienced users. Computer-assisted TDM is gaining growing interest and should further improve, especially in terms of information system interfacing, user friendliness, data storage capability and report generation.