Frequently Asked Questions

 

Why was Census written ?

When I first began trying to teach people NONMEM, it became apparent that a console-based application that needed to be compiled on-the-fly was intimidating to people who were used to glorious GUI-based applications like S-PLUS. The output, with all its exponential-format numbers, was especially problematic. Getting the results into a friendly environment and a format that people could read easily seemed the way to go. That, and managing run results was a tedious combination of notebooks and Excel. When you have as many as 500 runs in a project, this becomes a real pain in the neck.

Is Census really open source?

Yes. It is made available under the Mozilla Public License, version 1.1.

Is Census free, then?

Yes. Enjoy.

How is development of Census funded?

It isn't. Census is an entirely voluntary and self-supported project at present. That said, any offers of sponsorship (of software, say) would be very warmly received, and would add a big boost to the further development of the application. Mail me if you'd like to give a starving postdoc a helping hand...

It should be mentioned that the development of Census was previously funded, as part of my PhD research, by the wonderful people at the Division of Pharmacology, in the Department of Medicine at the University of Cape Town. Now that I have graduated, though, that is no longer the case.

Will Census be ported to Linux or Mac format?

If this ever happens, it will need to be substantially rewritten, and I will need to learn Qt4 before starting. So don't hold your breath.

Why isn't there any help? Or online documentation? Or some scribblings on a paper napkin? All there is is this FAQ!

Documentation is definitely on the way. It was my hope that Census would be self-explanatory enough that I could get away with it for a while. That time has now passed, and there will be a help file with the next non-bugfix release.

Will Census support PsN?

Yes. In fact, Census will rely on it in the future.

Does Census support Xpose?

As of version 1.0 beta 1, yes.

Does Census support R?

Yes. R support is essential to enable Xpose support. 

Will Census support Wings for NONMEM?

Soon.

Will Census support S-PLUS/PDx-POP?

No. These are commercial products and it is diffcult for freeware developers like myself to use them unless copies are donated. Besides, if you have PDx-POP you probably don't need Census!

Will Census be able to run NONMEM itself?

Yes, once PsN is folded in, NONMEM will have the ability to prepare and execute NONMEM runs as well as interpret them. But not in version 1.0.

If Census breaks my computer or any of my data, or costs me any time or money, or offends me or people or companies that I know in any way, can I sue you?

No. Use at your own risk. It's free, so support is limited, I'm afraid.

Can Census change, delete or damage my run data?

No. Census reads NONMEM input and output, but does not alter it in any way.

Has Census been published?

Yes. Wilkins JJ. NONMEMory: a run management tool for NONMEM. Comput Methods Programs Biomed. 2005 Jun;78(3):259-67.

Your article calls Census NONMEMory...

Before Census was called Census, it was called NONMEMory. The University of California felt that NONMEMory sounded too similar to NONMEM, and politely asked me to change it. Before NONMEMory, Census was called Drumsticks For NONMEM in an homage to the ground-breaking Wings for NONMEM. Change is the one constant in life...

Can I get support from the University of California or GloboMax?

Census is a completely independent project, and while it is complementary to NONMEM, has no ties to either UC San Francisco or GloboMax. Consequently, asking them for support if you have problems with Census will very probably be fruitless. It would be like phoning the power company to tell them that your DVD player's lens needs cleaning.

What did you use to write Census?

Borland Developer Studio 2006 , the Jedi VCL, and a range of open-source components.

I've got BDS! Can I help in the development?

Indeed you may. Download a copy of the source code and get cracking. If you want to help in the mainstream part of the project (this one) rather than starting your own branch, contact me and I'll help you get set up as a project developer at SourceForge.

I haven't got Delphi! Can you give me a copy?

No.

Why wasn't Census written in something more widely used than Delphi - like C++, for example?

Good idea, but I started this project as a Delphi developer. One day it would be nice to port Census to Qt, thus making it open source and C++-based, but I will need help...

Why has Census broken Excel?

Census is innocent. The guilty party is the R(D)COM server - version 2.50 installs a broken plugin into Microsoft Excel and prevents it from loading cleanly("Compile error: Can't find object or library"), most often when trying to open a spreadsheet file by double-clicking it. To solve the problem, make sure you use 2.50 PL1, or, if it has already happened to you, do the following: start Excel from its shortcut in the Start menu, choose Tools -> Add-ins from the menu bar, and deselect RExcel. If this doesn't work for you, or you are experiencing other issues, please contact me.

Why is Census bleating about incompaible versions of Excel? I deselected the plugin!

Again, the R(D)COM server installer is at fault. Messages about incompabile versions of Excel appear if you have Excel 2007, but, while annoying, they are relatively harmless and may be ignored. 

Why are all the buttons grayed out? I can't do anything!

You need to create a new database for your current modelling project (the first toolbar button) or open an existing one (second button). A database typically consists of several .FF2 files, and ideally should have its own directory. You can, however, put databases in any folder you like as long as there isn't already one there.

I can't see goodness-of-fit plots.

Census uses the same nomenclature as Xpose, in that it expects output data to be arranged into tables with names like sdtab, patab, catab and cotab. To display plots, the sdtab file must be present in the same folder as the model specification file and NONMEM output, and must contain ID, TIME, DV, MDV, EVID, PRED, IPRED, RES and IWRES.

Why do my plots vanish off the page?

Do you have a widescreen display? A fix may be possible. In the meantime, a workaround is to use a display mode with a normal aspect ratio. Which, I guess, is not spectacularly useful advice.

When are you adding reports? All this data is well and good but it's pointless if I can't get it into Word or Excel.

Back in the next release....

Excel sometimes won't start after I installed Census! "Compile error: Can't find project or library"...

This is an issue with R (D)COM 2.50, which is installed automatically with current versions of Census. It often occurs when double-clicking on spreadsheet files to open them with Microsoft Excel. What has happened is that the add-in that R(D)COM installs into Excel seems to be somewhat buggy. To fix this, start Excel from the Start menu, and uncheck the RExcel option under Tools -> Add-Ins.

Can I use Census to manipulate my input data files?

Possibly later on down the line for data files. Simple editing of model specification files is already in place, and wizards for all the common model types will be added soon, though. Code syntax highlighting is back in as well.

What are condition numbers and why are they important?

The ratio of the largest eigenvalue to the smallest eigenvalue, referred to as the condition number, is a measure of ill-conditioning. Eigenvalues are generated by NONMEM when the PRINT=E argument is used in the $COVARIANCE record. A condition number exceeding 1 000 is indicative of severe ill-conditioning (Montgomery DC, Peck EA. Introduction to Linear Regression Analysis. Wiley, NY, 1982, pp. 301-302). Thanks to William Bachman for this definition, which I've shamelessly stolen.

What about shrinkage?

Coming soon.

And conditional weighted residuals (CWRES)?

Soon.

Great, but I also need visual predictive checks (VPCs)...

Further down the line.

The Census icon appears to be a chicken. Why is this?

When I first started learning NONMEM, back in the dim and dusty past (2001), it was on a DOS platform, using Nick Holford's Wings for NONMEM as a frontend. When development first started on Census, it was called Drumsticks for NONMEM to reference what had come before. The icon stuck. The name didn't.

Will there be more frequently asked questions?

Yes indeed. Just as soon as I find the time to write them down, and just as soon as I get asked them more than once.