January 2009 - EpiData-list - University of Manitoba Mailing Lists

Double entry for a longitudinal study
by epidata-list＠lists.umanitoba.ca 28 Jan '09

28 Jan '09

I am preparing a double entry verification dataset for a longitudinal study; each participant has 6 follow-ups. Obviously, I'd like the double entry to compare the original entry with the correct follow-up number. For example, ID 100 has 6 follow-ups. I'd like to compare the original entry of follow-up 6 for ID 100 to the new entry of follow-up 6. As far as I know, you can only use ONE identifiable number to compare each entry, which makes double entry for a longitudinal study inconvenient. Is there a way to use both the ID number as well as the follow-up number while doing double entry? Thank you for your time and attention! Lindsay Lindsay Iser, M.A. University of South Florida Florida Mental Health Institute Department of Aging and Mental Health 13301 N. Bruce B. Downs BlVd. MHC 1403 Tampa, FL 33612 Tel-(813)-974-1975 Fax-(813)-974-1968

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Definition of copyrights for EpiData software and documentation
by epidata-list＠lists.umanitoba.ca 27 Jan '09

27 Jan '09

One of the topics for decision on the pathway to open-source of the software is declaration of copy-rights. Formally the copy-right of current products lies with the EpiData Association in combination with the authors of documents etc, which in principle is defined as the sum of persons involved (users, developers, initiators, contributors), but in practice a core group of more influential persons. See the credit pages of the website. There are an abundance of various software open-source/freeware/,..... formulations of copyrights and license principles. Basically as I see it there are three considerations a. By releasing the software one does not take responsibility for errors, timeloss or other losses by using the software (protection against claims from users). b. Someone else should not take the documentation and or software and use for their own purpose without proper referring to those who created the various parts. c. How can we protect the development for future use without restrictions imposed by patents, licensing or similar. And how can we make sure to keep it from being "taken over" under changed conditions. I am not asking for a lengthy discussion of this on this list, but should anyone have viewpoints on the topic let us know. Currently I am favouring the use of this one: "Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial-Share Alike 3.0 Unported Licence" which can be seen at: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/ as well in English as many other languages. The "Unported" means not translated. Kind regards Jens Lauritsen EpiData Association

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Alyshia Landry is out of the office.
by epidata-list＠lists.umanitoba.ca 17 Jan '09

17 Jan '09

I will be out of the office starting 01/17/2009 and will not return until 01/20/2009. If you require immediate assistance, please contact Celina Sousa at extension 5300. Thanks, Alyshia

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IMIF command Problem
by epidata-list＠lists.umanitoba.ca 17 Jan '09

17 Jan '09

Dear All, I am finding a problem while using IMIF command to tabulate the Opportunistic infections of the database aids.rec. The PGM being used is AIDSP which is meant to tabulate the Opportunistic infections. When I run the PGM there is no tabulation of the Opportunistic infections. However select and freq commands do display the Opportunistic infections in the database. I was using IMIF command because the PGM was getting stuck where there were no Opportunistic infections data in the record. I am attaching the sample database and PGM file for testing in Try.zip file with this message.. Any help will be appreciated. Dr. Shavinder

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Current development of Entry and Analysis - and a question
by epidata-list＠lists.umanitoba.ca 15 Jan '09

15 Jan '09

During recent months extensive work was done rewriting core parts of the software to a unified form for Entry and Analysis regarding reading, saving, exporting, importing and validating data in the internal structures. All of this is not visible to the end-user, but remedies some of the problems seen with different functioning of Entry and Analysis. The strategy is to ensure unified modularity of the internal structure instead of the "add lumps" principles which to some extend have been used over the first five years of development. At the same time known problems and deficiencies are fixed, e.g.: a. In Analysis the graph and table dialogs cannot be resized b. In Entry a clearer logic of creating data files and chks can be implemented, and implementation of Good Clinical Practice principles. As part of the core parts development a key highly technical decision has to be taken: One subtle aspect of earlier standards has been that integer variables were treated in a different form depending on the 1-4 or 5 and larger. Where integers of length 5 (#####) and larger actually were kept internally in the software (Entry and Analysis) as float variables with 0 decimals. The reason for this rests in the old Epi6 format and memory usage in the 1980'ies. We have taken the decision that from next versions of Analysis and Entry all will be built upon a common core system, where all integers (up to 14 in length) are treated as integers internally in the system. The change will only have impact for users reading rec files in other software than EpiData. All existing rec files will be read with no changes. For exports and imports the software will adapt appropriately. But users will have to use the most new versions for reading files created after the change. If anyone reject to this decision please discuss the consequences here on the list. -- Jens Lauritsen Coordinator and initiator of EpiData Project http://www.epidata.dk -- Jens Lauritsen Coordinator and initiator of EpiData Project http://www.epidata.dk

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problem with dialog box
by epidata-list＠lists.umanitoba.ca 15 Jan '09

15 Jan '09

I downloaded EpiData Analysis V2.1.0.157 and wanted to conduct a basic analysis. I can read in a dataset and click on the "Analysis" button. If I select something like "Tables", a dialog box opens up that cannot be resized (to see all of the options in the dialog box). Is there an easy solution to this? Dragging the corners of the box with my mouse does not seem to work, nor does pressing any button while dragging the box. It seems like there should be a scroll bar on the right side too so that one can scroll down to see the "Sorting" options; without this ability, the Sorting options are cut off. Reinstalling EpiData does not seem to solve the problem either. Is there a simple solution to this problem? Wayne Enanoria

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