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HumMod User’s Manual
Version 1.2
http://www.hummod.org
Table of Contents:
Installation:
Introduction:
Commands:
Basic Operation:
Sample Execution:
Conditions, Parameters, and Display:
(page numbers to follow upon completion of manual – table of contents
items and order subject to change on the slightest whim)
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Installation
HumMod is available for download from our website, which can be found at
http://www.hummod.org. The modeler and related files are available as a zip folder. To
install HumMod, simply download the folder and unzip it to the directory of your choice.
HumMod can then be opened by running the executable file HumMod.exe.
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Introduction
HumMod is an integrated computer model of human physiology which allows the
accurate simulation of the effects a person’s changing environment can have on their
physiology. It is developed and maintained by the University of Mississippi Medical
Center, and is the successor to the QCP (Quantitative Circulatory Physiology) program.
HumMod allows you to create disturbances in the environment and physiology of
a virtual person and to track the effects these changes have over time, and then, if
desired, to attempt to use simulations of clinical methods. Disturbances can be
environmental (i.e. the atmospheric pressure surrounding them), related to normal
physiology (i.e. the amount and intensity of physical exercise the patient is undergoing),
or related to pathophysiology (i.e. the patient has diabetes mellitus).
HumMod also allows you to control the person’s daily schedule, such as when
they eat, when they exercise, when they work, and when they sleep.
The first portion of this manual will address the basic premise of the program,
describe the various commands the program has available, and contains several
sample executions. This section of the guide is most useful to users that are unfamiliar
with concepts of computer simulation or have not operated HumMod or its predecessor,
QCP, before (though QCP users may benefit from reading the information regarding the
user interface, as it has changed significantly).
The second portion of the manual is an in-depth index of all displays that can be
accessed and all parameters that can be changed in a simulation. Hence, the second
portion is much longer than the first. Use of a find function to pinpoint the section you
are looking for is recommended rather than trying to search manually.
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Commands
When HumMod is first open, it will be set to display the “Chart” results under the
“Clinic” dropdown menu by default. The patient will also have the default characteristics
of a 5’10”, 170 lb, 37-year-old man, existing in an uninteresting room temperature
environment and following a fairly normal daily schedule.
The most basic command in HumMod is the “Go” dropdown menu. Since
solutions in HumMod are calculated as a function of time, time must be advanced in
order to achieve results.
Advancing a patient under the default conditions for any period of time will yield
predictable benchmark results.
The “Stop” command can be used to pause the advancement of the simulation at
any time if the user desires to examine a specific point or to change something before
the simulation reaches its originally scheduled duration.
The third command is “Restart”—this command immediately erases all data and
sends the program back to its default parameters. The Restart command should be
viewed with absolutely no less awe and respect than the act of physically shaking an
Etch-a-Sketch. If you hit it, and you did not mean to, tough cookies, your work is gone.
So be careful.
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Saving and Loading
There are two types of files that can be saved and loaded. The first is initial
conditions, and the second is results. The initial condition refers to the physiological and
environmental constraints that have been placed on a person before any time is actually
advanced. Initial conditions files can be loaded or saved using the .ics file extension.
Likewise, you can save the data that contains the solutions to the situations you create,
as a .sol file. Windows XP users take note: The program is having difficulty
communicating with the XP operating system with regard to file extensions when saving
or loading. It is still possible to manually save solutions as a .sol file, but even manually
adding the .ics extension does not currently work, meaning only solutions can be saved
in XP (However, you can still load .ics files saved on another computer and transferred).
Options Window
The options window contains a couple of
different subsets. The first tab is
“Reset/Restart.” There are two buttons under
this category. Picking the first option will
duplicate the action of the “Restart” button
and clear all data while returning values to
their default settings. Clicking the second
button will reset the solution to time zero and
initial conditions but keep environmental and
physiological factors at the values they have
been changed to.
The second tab under options allows for the
notes section that occupies part of the
“Chart” display (the default display) to be
edited. Additional notes can be added or
erased as desired.
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The third set of options allows you to decide
whether saving initial conditions will record
the current time as the current time or set it
to the initial value.
The fourth set of options allows you to set
how many operations the forward and back
arrows will remember, up to a possible
maximum of 10 choices.
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The final operation in the options window
allows you to create a real-time log of the
information recorded by the program. You
can either append an old log file or make
a new one at the destination which you
specify. The bottom box allows you to
toggle the log on or off, and also allows
you to set the log to end after a certain
number of steps.
Help
The help tab is used to access the program’s version information and developer
contact information, just in case HumMod’s operation fills you with an unquenchable
rage and you feel the righteous need to viciously harangue and malign those
responsible for its existence.
Forward/Back Arrows
The back arrow acts as an “undo” operation, immediately rescinding the last
change you have made in the simulation—if you just changed to a different display, say
from “Chart” to “Daily Planner,” it will return you to the previous page that you were on,
and if you change a condition, such as increasing or decreasing the person’s caloric
intake, it will return the value changed to its previous setting. However, it does not wind
back time if you make an advancement that you did not mean to, so be careful when
advancing time in sensitive simulations.
The forward arrow undoes the undoing, and returns the last change that was
wiped away by the back arrow, whether it be conditional or navigational.
The forward and back arrows will still maintain a navigational history and allow
you to switch display pages even after the Restart command has been used to reset the
simulation.
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Basic Operation
Creating a basic solution in HumMod is quite
simple. Any advancement of time will yield results in
five-thousand-odd variables that run the program.
For example, just opening the program and
immediately advancing it some period of time will
give you basic results: A blood pressure of about
120/80, an internal temperature of around 98.6˚F, a
respiratory rate of roughly 11.3, and a heart rate of
approximately71 BPM. This is the default Chart
display which is opened up every time HumMod
launches (Figure A). However, using the dropdown
menu, you can navigate to any number of displays,
such as our ersatz human’s blood volume statistics
(Figure B). Any number of conditions or parameters
can also be changed in order to create certain
scenarios and results in the simulation. Conditions
are changed either through the use of radiobuttons
(used for options that are toggled on/off) or sliders
(used to set variables which have many possible
quantitative settings). Another important feature
of HumMod’s user interface are the information
boxes contained in many of the displays.
Clicking on these boxes will yield a dialog box
holding information about the box, usually being
either the normal values in a human being for
the variables in the box, the units they are
measured in, conversion factors for several
units, or combinations of these three.
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Sample Execution
The following is a walkthrough of a demonstration in which several of the virtual
person’s environmental variables are changed and the effects of these changes are
modified over time. First, open HumMod. It should be set, as always to the “Chart” of a
patient with default statistics. Use “Go” to advance the patient 10 minutes. His
uninteresting vitals should be just as uninteresting as they were when you started. Now
we’re going to invoke a severe environmental change on our poor guinea pig. Out of
nothing other than caprice, he is now a mountain climber that has become stranded, so
we’ll need to change his environmental factors to match the circumstances that his mid-
life crisis has forced him into. The bottom row of dropdown menus controls the
navigation to all of the variables that the program can monitor and all
of the factors that can be changed. The “Environment” options and
display can be found under the “Lifestyle” dropdown menu. Select
this “Environment” option so that it can be changed in order to
simulate our marooned mountaineer. The Environment page allows
you to control temperature, altitude (which changes atmospheric
pressure), wind speed, relative humidity, and the level of clothing
worn by the patient (a choice between “no clothing”, “summer”,
“normal”, “winter” and “arctic”).
Let’s have our subject stranded
at 7000 feet (2134 meters for the
metrically inclined), suffering
through 20 mph winds at 9˚F.
Thankfully, he has managed to
wrap himself in very warm
clothing in an attempt to hold out
for rescue, which is arbitrarily 30
minutes away. Mystically, he has
also apparently not been
experiencing these conditions
until this moment. Now we can
advance time and monitor his
progress. Use Go to advance 30
minutes. If you check “Chart” under “Clinic,” a readout will tell you that the patients vitals
are fairly close to normal, he is experiencing no symptoms of either exposure or oxygen
deprivation, and he will quite easily make rescue. However, if you make the
temperature, wind, and altitude conditions more severe, you can easily send the patient
into hypothermia and a host of other nasty conditions. Were you to do this, the patient
would develop conditions and symptoms as time advanced. Every time the model
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calculates that the patient is experiencing a physiological aberration, such as their body
temperature dropping to 80˚F or something minor like that, a dialog box will interrupt the
operation of the program with the patient’s “description” of their symptom, such as “I’m
like….confused.” At this point, you are given the option to halt the simulation rather than
continuing it for the time you originally requested so that you can examine the detailed
statistics of the patient’s current existence, and, if desired, to initiate treatment or
adjustment to their surroundings in order to try and rescue them.
Quick Command List Overview
The dropdown lists on the second row control what screen is currently being displayed
by HumMod. As stated earlier, the default is “Chart,” a basic physiological overlay
accessed through the “Clinic” menu.
The first tab is “Physiology.” Physiology focuses on things like the concentration of
electrolytes in the body, and the overall activity level of several organ systems such as
the circulatory system.
The second tab is “Organs.” Organs contains in-depth information regarding the
function and level of health of specific organs, including size, tissue damage, and fuel
consumption, among other things.
The third tab is “Lifestyle.” Lifestyle controls the environment of the model, from clothing
to exercise to the actual environment that the person can be found in.
The fourth tab is “Clinic.” Clinic contains displays that are medical in nature, allowing for
the patient to be treated with different drugs and anesthesia, as well as allowing for the
activation of afflictions such as hemorrhage.
The fifth tab is “Context.” Context shows basic information about the patient such as
their gender, body size, and age.
The sixth tab is “Startup.” Startup displays the original values of physiological variables
used by HumMod, and also displays the current values held by those variables.
