Hierarchical Species Sensitivity Distributions (hSSD)

hSSD is software implementing a hierarchical species sensitivity distribution model where the hierarchy is based on taxonomic classification of species. The statistical model includes interchemical, interspecies and intertest components of variation. Full details of the model may be found in Craig, Peter S. (2013). Exploring Novel Ways of Using Species Sensitivity Distributions to Establish PNECs for Industrial Chemicals, final report to steering group of project funded by Statoil and Unilever.

Current state of hSSD

The original 2012 software implementation for Windows was written in Matlab by Willem Roelofs and includes a basic graphical user interface. Links for downloading the Matlab version may be found below along with instructions about installation. It appears to work still on Windows 12.

During the development of hSSD, Peter Craig implemented the algorithms required in R. R code providing the core functionality of hSSD was shared with Yuan Pan and Tom Sinclair when both were PhD students supervised by Lorraine Maltby at Sheffield University. Small enhancements and fixes for minor errors resulted.

Tom Sinclair and Peter Craig are now working together to create an R library (and possibly also a Shiny app) for the original hSSD and with a view to enhancing various aspects including details of the underlying statistical model. We hope to make an initial release during the first half of 2022.

Software download (Matlab version)

There are two stages required for installation of the software: install the hSSD software itself and install the MCR (Matlab compiler runtime support). The MCR needs to be installed just once and does not need to be reinstalled when upgrading to a new version of hSSD.

Do I need to install the MCR?

If you are not sure whether or not you have installed the MCR already, simply download and install hSSD. If the MCR needs to be installed, you will get an error message when you run hSSD. Here's an example of what it might look like:

Downloading and installing hSSD

Download the current version of the hSSD installer and save to your computer. It will be named hSSD-current. Then run the installer (double-click it).

If you have difficulties, please send a description of what happened by email to Peter Craig. Please include a screen-shot or text of error messages in your email.

Running hSSD

The installation should have created an hSSD item in the Windows Start menu.

Downloading and installing the MCR if needed

First download the installer and save to your computer. Warning: this may take some time as it is a large file (350Mb).

Then find the file named MCR_R2012a_win32_installer and run it (double-click it). For most people, default options should work fine.

Please note that the MCR is available for free. You are not required to make any payment nor to register a license. This is quite different from Matlab itself which is commercial software.


Peter Craig

Last modified: Fri Feb 4 15:47:46 GMT 2022


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