Welcome to the openGUTS information pages
OpenGUTS is a user-friendly
software to perform analyses with GUTS: the General Unified
Threshold model for Survival. GUTS is the leading
toxicokinetic-toxicodynamic framework for the endpoint
survival (and other non-reversible all-or-nothing effects).
Version 1.0 was released in December 2019, followed by
Version 1.1. in February 2021.
This site hosts the software itself, as a standalone Windows
executable, with manuals and background documentation. Since
openGUTS is (as the name implies) open source, also the
source files can be obtained here. Additionally, you can
download the Matlab version, which served as the blueprint
for the standalone version. The Matlab version has basically
the same functionality, and can be easily adapted or
extended to perform customised analyses. Finally, we provide
(links to) further information on openGUTS and GUTS.
The main features of the software are:
- Open and free: the software is open source and
freely downloadable. The fully-functional Matlab version that
served as the prototype is also available.
- User-friendly: fit models and derive
confidence intervals without requiring user interaction
(e.g., no need for starting values).
- Robust: always find the global optimum and
relevant intervals, even for awkward data sets.
- Flexible: allow time-varying exposure, missing
data, simultaneous fitting on multiple data sets, etc.
- Efficient: rapid screening of exposure profiles
(e.g., FOCUS
output) by batch processing.
- Supportive: the software follows the workflow
as laid down in the 2018
EFSA opinion on TKTD models.
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openGUTS standalone Windows executable
openGUTS in Matlab
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Announcements
March 2024. Update of the openGUTS standalone to v1.2. The
openGUTS standalone has been updated to fix an error message
appearing for specific data sets (with a missing data point
for survival at the last time point, with time-varying
exposure) and to provide additional time points for LCx
estimates.
EFSA's
2023 bee guidance requires GUTS to be used for
prediction of LCx (or LDx) after 10 and 27 (and in some
cases 182) days. These time points are now automatically
also generated by openGUTS. The Matlab version is
updated to v.1.2 as well (to keep the version numbering
matched with the standalone, and to show the additional
LCx time points by default). See downloads
page.
For those of you going to SETAC Europe in Seville 5-9 May
2024: don't miss the session on effect
modelling in regulatory science, and the special
session on ways
forward for mechanistic effect modeling in environmental
risk assessment.
For old
announcements, click here.
Important warnings/errors
Summary of errors in older
versions (details on the downloads page).
Error in v1.0. The IT
calculations used a shortcut that did not work in all cases.
This led to errors for time varying exposure, where the
exposure scenario includes episodes of linear decrease over
time (for constant exposure and block pulses, it will be
fine). Repaired in the update of the standalone and Matlab
version, to v. 1.1.
Matlab R2023a throws errors (v1.1 and earlier). The
newest version of Matlab does not allow the cell-array
format for name-value pairs anymore. The update to v1.1a solves
this issue (6 April 2023). However, the new
version will no longer support Matlab
R2014b-R2016a.
OpenGUTS
standalone produces error for missing
observation at last time point. The
openGUTS standalone (v1.0 and v1.1) throws
an error when using a data set for survival,
with time-varying exposure, in which there
are one or more missing values at the last
time point. The Matlab version does not have
this problem. A workaround is available (see
downloads page). Fixed in
the update to v.1.2.
News
- 20 March 2024: release of an update of the openGUTS
standalone to v.1.2 so fix an error message for (very)
specific data sets and to calculate additional LCx
values to support risk assessment for bees following the
EFSA
guidance. See download page. The Matlab
version has also been updated to v.1.2 (it did not
suffer from the error in the standalone, but the
additional LCx are now, by default, produced).
- 15 October 2023: added a bit more explanation on the
error produced by the standalone for missing
observations at the last time point. Also included an
example of a data set that causes problems, and how to
split up the data set as workaround. See download
page.
For old news items, click here.
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